Tears of the Phoenix
by midnightjen
Summary: With a new family and new friends, Harry takes the final steps toward defeating Voldemort once and for all. The sequel to Blood of the Phoenix.
1. Chapter 1

**disclaimer: **i am not fortunate enough to own the rights to harry potter, i merely enjoy playing with them.

**a/n: **Here is the sequal to Blood of the Phoenix, it takes place in Harry's sixth year and sees the contents of the sixth and seventh books somewhat merged. I hope you enjoy the beginning of the next step in Harry's journey and would love to hear your thougths on the chapter.

**Chapter 1**

Molly Weasley had developed a tic. Every now and then when a certain name came up or when she overheard certain words her left eye would twitch slightly. It hadn't taken her kids long to recognise the signs of an impending explosion and they'd taken to intentionally baiting her and then fleeing for their lives when it all finally became too much.

There were different degrees to the tic as well. Mentioning Ally Martin got a slight twitch and a huge reddening of the cheeks as she swelled with fury. Mention Ally Potter and quite frankly you better be running before you've got the first syllable out. It was a game that a good portion of Dumbledore's failed Order of the Phoenix enjoyed playing.

There had been quite a few bets placed for the evening. Normally in the Weasley house July thirty first was celebrated in one of two ways. Worry and a good deal of fretting or celebration were the normal pattern for the day. This particular July thirty first not one member of the Weasley family was willing to stay home.

The twins had taken refuge at their joke shop, Ginny was hiding out at Luna's and Ron had escaped to his girlfriends so quickly after breakfast he'd been perfectly on time to have a second one in the safety of her home. Arthur Weasley had gone in to work early leaving his wife to slam objects about and fume in peace. Without risk of anyone getting magically castrated or killed.

Every now and then she'd stomp into the kitchen to simply glare at the invitation sitting on the table. Fury over the innocuous little message just kept swelling until eventually a poor and unsuspecting magical door salesmen copped the resulting explosion. Though they never again got annoying afternoon visits from people trying to sell them things they couldn't afford, the poor salesmen ended up quitting his job and retiring to Brazil.

In secret, Arthur had made a comment in passing to his youngest that he'd hate to see what happened when the wedding invitation arrived. The birthday one had been quite enough, thank you very much.

Ginny, the unfortunate loser of the game that had decided which family member would have to return home first, had to duck several pieces of silverware as she entered through the back door. She spun around to see three forks and a spoon firmly imbedded in the door behind her and shuddered. They were all perfectly aimed to kill.

'Sorry,' her mother apologised, not sounding sorry at all. She bustled past her daughter, hands already full of bent cutlery and wrenched the offending pieces form the door. 'How was your day, Ginny dear?'

'It was good,' Ginny replied, edging slowly around her mother and toward the door to the living room. 'Luna's been helping her dad hunt down some magical creatures they think could help us fight the war against Voldemort.'

'That's nice, dear.'

If Ginny had needed any more proof that her mother wasn't listening, it was in her reaction to a statement that would ordinarily have truly pissed her off. Letting slide the idea that her children and their friends were actively participating in the fight against Voldemort was not something Molly Weasley would ever do under normal circumstances.

Ginny took the opportunity to flee to her room. It was only an hour before they were supposed to be at Harry's but an hour was too long spent in the company of a witch with a grudge and some sharp, if slightly bent, cutlery.

Ron was climbing in through her bedroom window when she arrived. She rolled her eyes but secretly she was wondering why she hadn't thought of that.

'Was it bad?' Ron asked, smoothing out his clothes and trying to straighten his hair.

'I was nearly killed by a spoon and some forks.'

Ron winced. 'It can't last forever, right?'

'I'm sure things will be back to normal once this party's over with.' Ginny didn't sound at all confident and Ron gave her a sardonic grin.

'You mean when she was just really quiet and kept bursting into tears?'

It was Ginny's turn to wince. The first few weeks they'd been home hadn't been pretty. They'd been quieter, sure, but not in any good way. Though, at least once they'd discovered her tic they'd learned to release her temper before it reached boiling point. The days of tears had been behind them for weeks but the quiet anger and the slight twitch every time Ally's name came up was getting a little ridiculous.

'Maybe this party will actually help,' Ron hazarded.

'And maybe she'll go crazy and kill us all.'

A soft explosion downstairs was followed by a startled yelp and suddenly Arthur Weasley had joined them and was barricading the door. His hat was smoking slightly and he was breathing heavily from his flight up the stairs.

'This has got to end.'

'I say we lock her in a room with Ally and let them sort it out.'

Ron's suggestion made them laugh, not that it was at all funny but the idea of a near indestructible three hundred year old facing down the fiery Molly Weasley did bring funny thoughts to mind.

There was a yelp downstairs and the sudden smell of burning straw. Fred and George appeared in the room with only the slightest of cracks to show that they were a little stressed. Downstairs there was a hiss like a kettle reaching boiling point and both of the twins winced.

'Diversion,' George explained. 'Another of our inventions.'

'Didn't seem to last long.'

It seemed like they spent hours hiding away in Ginny's room when really it was a mere thirty minutes. The whole time was spent devising new ways they could think up to stop the yelling and throwing and the weird muscle tic that was beginning to creep them all out. They didn't have much luck and eventually they were forced to leave the room to go and get changed for the party.

Ron was the first one down, dressed nicely in a pair of dark blue jeans and a crisp grey shirt that Daphne had told him under no uncertain terms he was to wear. There was a birthday card stuffed into his back pocket and he was walking slowly and quietly like one might when approaching a wild animal.

'Mum, are you nearly ready?'

Coming down the stairs behind him, George flinched and prepared to run. There was no explosion however so he braved the last few steps and stopped beside his younger brother. They both stood at the base of the stairs unwilling to move any closer until Mrs Weasley showed any signs of being calm.

She was sitting at the kitchen table dressed in a slightly warn dress but looking nice and respectable. Her hands were braced on the table either side of a gift wrapped box. She was staring blankly at the box like it could somehow provide the answers to her questions.

They were all gathered at the bottom of the stairs before Mrs Weasley spoke. She sounded scratchy and hollow and it was more than a little disturbing coming from such a powerful woman.

'Is he happy?'

Mr Weasley breezed passed his children and, pretending not to have heard his wife, bustled her out of her chair to stand with her family. She held her head high, reached out for her husband's hand and told them she was ready.

With a rather dubious look at his children Mr Weasley pulled his wife close and apparated. Ginny took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

'We're doomed.'

Ginny's words turned out to be rather prophetic but not in the way she had originally intended them. They arrived just moments after their parents on the country lane just outside the gates of Harry's new home. A string of fairy lights lit a path toward the house despite the fact that it was quite early and the sun shone brightly even if it was quite low in the sky.

Martin Manor loomed ahead of them, giving just one more reason for Mrs Weasley to feel uncomfortable with Ally's role in Harry's life. As the only Weasley yet to see the large but well lived in home, she was taken aback by the sight. Despite its imposing image as they got closer she was able to see the little signs that showed it to be a family home filled with joy and laughter.

Ron led the way up the path and the closer they got the louder the party became. Music and voices drifted toward them down the path and for a moment Harry's laughter rang clear across the front yard. Mrs Weasley faltered in her step but her family pretended not to notice and then they rounded a curve in the path and the party was spread before them across the lawn.

More fairy lights trailed above the party, a long table stood at the edge of the gathering covered in food, its centrepiece was a huge layered chocolate cake with whipped cream and icing. A tub filled with ice and drinks stood at one end of the table and a pile of presents towered precariously at the other.

Dozens of people were gathered, talking in groups or sitting at tables and chewing happily on food. Mrs Weasley was startled by the diverse group; students from Hogwarts were mixed in amongst hardened Aurors. A group of ancient old witches were gathered around a table cackling heartily as Sirius regaled them with some tale from his youth.

Ruby was sitting on the grass playing a game with a group of kids. As they approached the party Tonks joked loudly about Ruby finally finding people on her own level. In retaliation Tonks spent the rest of the evening with huge glowing words floating above her head that proclaimed her to be a party pooper. Not her first choice in words but Ruby had tried to remain kid friendly.

The fact of Harry's change hit Mrs Weasley even harder when she looked around at the gathered people, people Harry thought of to be friends and family, and realised she knew very few of them. She hesitated on the sidelines even as the rest of her family was pulled away.

Ginny was swept up into a discussion about Quidditch with Oliver Wood and a group of professional Quidditch players while Ron spotted Daphne talking with Stephanie and hurried away before he could be forced to deal with his mother. Arthur was waved over by a group of middle aged men and women who were deep in discussion but he offered them an apologetic smile and angled his head down at his wife.

Explanation enough, as it turned out.

Mr Weasley placed a hand to the small of his wife's back and guided her gently through the crowd. People greeted them as they passed and he made it a point to be polite when moving on but for the most part Mrs Weasley looked around her in wonder. They found Harry talking to Andromeda Tonks and Luna Lovegood at a small table. Baby Molly was sitting happily in Luna's lap giggling and pulling on the long blonde hair that kept dancing into her view.

Harry stood when he saw them approaching and moved to greet them with a warm smile and a tight hug. Mrs Weasley relaxed a great deal when Harry held her a little longer than was strictly necessary and by the time he pulled back she was actually smiling. It probably wouldn't last long when Ally appeared but all the partygoers would appreciate it while it lasted.

'Happy birthday, Harry.'

'Thanks, Mrs Weasley.'

There was an awkward moment where neither was sure quite what to say next but thankfully, before things could get any worse, distraction came in the form of Abby and Emmy's rather dramatic entrance. The two friends arrived with a flourish and a loud chorus of Happy Birthday that did the Weasley twins' quite proud.

Grinning, Harry excused himself to go and greet his friends and Mrs Weasley was left to flounder over the thought of having to interact with dozens of people who possibly knew more about Harry than she did.

While Mrs Weasley learned all about the new Harry and Mr Weasley spent his night trying to keep her calm, Harry drifted between the guests. He'd only ever had one birthday party before, a small celebration the Weasley's had thrown in his honour, and it was liberating to finally have what other people had always had.

'You should have seen the look on his face!' Harry heard Daphne laughingly explain to Kingsley Shacklebott. 'Voldemort himself was not ten feet away and he was freaking out over a spider.'

Harry passed another conversation in which Susan Bones was comparing battle scars with Deidre Heart and yet another in which one of the working girls from the Lonely Wench was comparing stories with an old crone about the job. Several men had stopped in to hear that particular conversation and it was only the sight of Ally returning to the garden that drew Harry away from Tessa's tantalising reminiscence.

'Any news?' Harry asked as she approached.

Instead of answering she walked straight into him, pressing close to him and wrapping her arms around him. 'You know it's your birthday, right?'

'I'm aware,' Harry responded.

'So just enjoy your night and leave worrying over Dumbledore for tomorrow.'

Harry sighed heavily. Honestly he was a little peeved with Dumbledore, not that that was an unusual occurrence. But for him to pull off such a dangerous stunt on Harry's birthday without alerting anyone but Snape until it was all over was downright dirty. The worst of it was no one had any idea where he'd been or what he was doing, for all they knew he'd nicked off for a quick pint and gotten into an overenthusiastic barroom brawl.

As if that was something anyone could ever imagine Dumbledore doing.

'Tell you what, I'll go place nice with the Weasley woman if you promise to forget about Dumbledore for the night.'

Harry snorted and took Ally's hand so she could go and play nice with Mrs Weasley. It was a confrontation that had to happen and he'd prefer it to happen now so he had the joy of present opening to kill any awkward silences or murderous looks.

'Hello, Arthur,' Ally greeted her pseudo father in law. She reached up to plant a soft kiss on his cheek and he offered her a fatherly hug in return. Funny the roles they automatically fell into despite her being a good two hundred and fifty years his senior. 'Hello, Mrs Weasley.'

In contrast to her husband's warm greeting Molly Weasley gave Ally a tight smile that didn't quite meet her eyes. 'Your house is lovely,' was Mrs Weasley's tentative offering.

'Thanks,' Ally's smile was genuine as she was trying hard to be nice to the woman even if all she was getting for her troubles was a headache and sore cheeks from all the fake big smiles.

For a moment silence threatened to engulf them but Harry wasn't about to let things get out of hand and Mr Weasley was quite happy to help him keep things going.

'How's work? Fred says you've been promoted.'

Mr Weasley beamed with excitement and even Mrs Weasley managed to crack a brief proud grin. Talk of respective work got them through the worst of it and passed enough time that Harry could get away with announcing he was opening presents without seeming rude.

He may have been the birthday boy but even that wasn't enough of an excuse.

There was a trend in his birthday gifts. Half of the presents were really aimed at his daughter, games they could play together when she was older, goofy joke gifts such as the small sleep suit from Oliver Wood that was a miniature version of Harry's Gryffindor Quidditch robes. Molly was going to be a Quidditch player even if it killed her family friends.

The other half of the gifts were divided between gifts solely for Harry and those designed for both he and Ally. It was weird being one half of a couple but Harry enjoyed the obvious implication that Ally was now a permanent fixture in his life. As something he'd never had before the little signs through his gifts meant the world to him.

The party continued well into the night and Harry only disappeared briefly with Ally to put Molly to bed before they both returned to the garden. As the hours drew on and the partygoers started to leave it was only Harry's closest friends and family that remained. They ended up sitting around a table under the stars drinking the last of the Butterbeer and trading stories about Harry.

'I'm not kidding,' Ally laughed. 'When I told Harry I was pregnant he sliced his arm open and nearly broke his nose walking into a wall.'

'That reminds me of when I told Ted I was pregnant,' Andromeda laughed. 'He kept walking into doors and would stop in the middle of doing some task or other just to stop and think it over.'

Mrs Weasley didn't join in with her own tale. It wasn't because she didn't have a funny story about telling Mr Weasley she was pregnant, she did have nine kids after all. At least three of those were funny stories that she didn't tell because she was holding in her snide comment regarding Ally's pregnancy. No one was left in any doubt that had Molly not inherited her father's eyes that her paternity would have been called in to question.

'I think I'll just wait until Ron figures it out,' Daphne contributed, causing both Ron and his mother to choke on their drinks.

Fred smacked his brother on the back forcefully, laughing loudly. 'We could place bets on how long it takes him to catch on.'

Ron, who appeared to be hyperventilating, was turning a funny shade of green. Whether at the sudden and horrifying thought of becoming a father or the confirmation that Daphne was planning for the long haul was anyone's guess.

'I'll be in on that,' Emmy chimed in, sharing an amused grin with Fred.

'Ha ha, very funny,' Ron grumbled.

Daphne grinned widely and slid her arms around his waist, offering him a soft kiss to his lips in compensation for her joke at his expense. The twins let out an exaggerated aww which earned them a handful of Bertie Bott's every flavour beans to the face each. The table dissolved into laughter and even Mrs Weasley felt her mouth lifting in a grin.

Soon, despite the warm atmosphere, conversation turned to grimmer subjects. The war against Voldemort was an ever present mood dampener and one no one could afford to ignore. Snuggled into Harry's side, Ally let it slide that talk had turned to work. It was too much to ask that they not think of something so monumental for a whole night. Hopefully they would have the rest of their lives to not think about Voldemort.

'Any word from Mad-Eye?' Abby asked into the sudden heavy quiet.

'He's turning over contacts in some places I wouldn't ever dream of going,' Ruby said with a shudder. 'He gets out word every other day but he hasn't stopped moving since he went looking for an answer.'

'An answer to what?' Mrs Weasley asked.

There was a moment where everyone at the table shifted uncomfortably but it passed so quickly she was sure it was imagined.

'How Voldemort survived the rebounded killing curse,' Ally answered.

It wasn't a lie exactly, Moody really was looking into ways that Voldemort had avoided dying but it wasn't the whole truth of what he was looking into. It was hard not telling Mrs Weasley everything when everyone else at the table knew but her open disapproval of Harry's choice in Ally and his participation in the war guaranteed she would go directly to Dumbledore with any information or problems.

Right now, if word from Snape was to be believed, Dumbledore was in no shape to help anyone, least of all in the war against Voldemort.

As if to confirm everyone's suspicions, Mrs Weasley went on to say, 'Surely Dumbledore has some idea. Hasn't he looked into this?'

'If he has he's not talking,' McGonagall answered, surprising Mrs Weasley with her willingness to speak against a man she had worked alongside and respected for decades.

'We want to win this war, Molly,' Sirius spoke softly, 'Not prolong it until Harry's fifty and "ready" to fight.'

It was like being in another world. For Harry the thoughts and opinions of those seated around his table were the most respected. He trusted these friends and family to make the right decisions based on necessity and not to worry about whether or not he was ready. It was refreshing not to be treated like a child while the grownups went out to play.

But for Molly Weasley it was a nightmare come to life. Well educated adults were bending to the uneducated whim of a teenage boy all because he was whispered to be the only one who could bring down Voldemort. In her eyes, the people at the table represented all of the people who should have been helping to keep him safe and out of trouble. They were the adults that should have been talking him out of fighting, the students who should have been playing exploding snap with him.

It was a horrible price to pay for happiness but it seemed, against all odds, to be working in Harry's favour. He was in the middle of a war that he was definitely going to have to fight in, whether it be now or in ten years time, and he was happier than he'd ever been before.

It was confronting.

It was only when Stephanie fell asleep with her head in Fred's lap and her legs spread across Emmy's lap that Ally declared it time everyone was getting home. Fred lifted Stephanie up into his arms and volunteered to take her home. Emmy helped him walk her down the drive before he vanished by the gate.

Abby kissed Harry's cheek and offered Ally a tired wave before trudging after them. She reached the bend in the drive and in minutes was vanishing from the lane. A little underage magic ensuring she got home safely. Both Sirius and Ruby would be spending the night and turned toward the house rather than stay up saying one too many goodbyes.

Nobody liked to think how every goodbye, every parting, could be the last. It imbued everything with a heavy tension and the need to make sure things were said. Something that unfortunately didn't seem to be bothering Mrs Weasley who offered Harry a warm hug and whispered in his ear that she wouldn't blame him if he wanted to come stay with them.

Harry's goodbye to her was frosty at best and she seemed to realise she'd said something wrong even if she didn't apologise for it. When the last person (Lupin) rounded the bend in the path Ally turned to Harry with a tired but sly grin. Her tongue peeked from between her teeth and despite the fact that she was holding in a yawn she managed to look quite alluring.

Harry leant down to kiss away her grin. 'I'm so bloody tired,' he murmured against her lips.

'I don't think I've slept properly in days,' Ally agreed.

Harry kissed her long and slow, a kiss that suggested they had all the time in the world to stand in their driveway and enjoy each other. But they didn't because Molly would start crying soon and the war would press in on them and they'd be back to catching sleep when they could while they hunted down Voldemort's forces.

For the moment they were going to enjoy the peace while it lasted. Sleep and each other, it sounded like an alright kind of birthday gift.


	2. Chapter 2

**a/n: **words cannot express how sorry i am that it took so long to get this up. suffice to say that working in retail at christmas is like a trip to hell. thank you so much to those who read and reviewed. your kind words and thoughts are always hugely appreciated.

**Chapter 2**

BOOM!

Dudley Dursley tumbled out of bed just as another boom shook the house around him. Terrified and still half asleep it was a few seconds and another boom before he was awake enough to process what was happening.

Rising to a crouch he scrambled to the window and peered down into the street. Privet Drive was lit up like it was Christmas but it wasn't fairy lights this time. More than a dozen black cloaked figures stood on the street outside and they were assaulting the house with what Dudley recognised as spells.

BOOM!

The house shook again and as he watched the spells tore through some sort of barricade. The next boom smashed into the front of the house, breaking glass and blowing in the front door. Frozen with fear Dudley crouched beneath the window unsure what to do. Then he heard his father shout and he was catapulted into action.

There was no time to change but he managed to slip into a pair of sneakers by his door as he scooped up the fake fluffy owl and darted into the hall. He almost collided with his mother at the top of the stairs. She was leading his father by the front of his pyjamas with a fierce look on her face.

Vernon Dursley was purple with rage and it looked to Dudley that the only thing stopping him from marching downstairs and stupidly getting himself killed was the tight grip his wife had on him.

'They've come for him,' Dudley said breathlessly.

Petunia Dursley nodded sharply and used her free hand to clutch tightly at the pendant on her necklace, the one she never took off.

'Harry's room. NOW.'

Below them the sound of laughter fought to be heard over the destruction of the living room. So far not one of the cloaked figures had attempted to come in but it was only a matter of time. The trio, led by Dudley, turned back down the hall and had taken just one step when a man appeared suddenly in front of them.

The man was tall and thin with a large scar that ran down the side of his neck. Long grey hair hung about his face in greasy strands. He snarled at them and almost licked his lips. Petunia let out a startled yell and Vernon shouted about intruders. Only Dudley kept silent, rising to his full height he looked the man right in the eye and grinned.

'You're going to die.'

The man blinked and Dudley made his move. He threw the fluffy owl into the air and another, larger, round object right at the man.

'Ally Potter!' he shouted, diving sideways and trying to drag his family with him.

He was fast, finally his boxing training having paid off, but the man was faster. He couldn't stop the fluffy owl but his wand flicked out and the round object vanished just before it could explode. He shot another spell and Dudley felt something heavy slam into him. It knocked him back and left him bent over and gasping.

It didn't have the desired effect, though, and the surprise the man experienced gave Petunia enough time to shove her husband off balance and topple him back into Dudley's bedroom. She ignored Vernon's startled protests and his furious words still being directed at the people violating his home. Instead, she stood proudly in front of Dudley and held her head high.

She clutched tightly at the necklace her nephew had gifted her. She ignored the sound of heavy footsteps coming up the stairs and the sound of people destroying her pristine kitchen. She turned her back on everything she had fought to have over the last twenty years and for a moment became the same little girl who had so wanted to be just like her big sister.

'Get out of my home!'

The man sneered at her. 'Don't think so, luv. Seems you have something we want.'

'No,' Petunia answered boldly.

The man snarled again and with a sharp twist of his wand he directed a sickly yellow spell toward her. The spell slammed into her, wrapping around her like a second skin but like the one that hit Dudley it didn't have the desired effect. Petunia glared back with a sneer of her own.

'Goodbye.'

She dropped suddenly to the floor as the house around her exploded. Debris tumbled over her, the remains of Dudley's bedroom door rained down around the crouched family. Small splinters embedded themselves in skin and Vernon whimpered slightly. Neither Dudley nor Petunia made a sound.

Out in the destroyed hall there was the sound of a body impacting with the floor and the loud crack of wood splintering as the stairs gave way. Dudley scrambled to his feet and stuck his head out into the hall. He pulled it back in just as a spell whizzed by his nose.

'Two trying to get up the stairs,' he informed his mother, his breath coming in short gasps.

Vernon, turning purple with rage and a good dose of fear heaved his hefty form off the floor and out from behind his wife who was still acting as a bony human shield.

'What is the meaning of this?' he demanded. Above him the ceiling cracked with the force of the spell barrage. 'Who are these people?'

The house shook violently, filling with a strange violet light that left them blinking rabidly to clear their vision. A crack like the sound of a whip heralded the very foundation of the house coming apart. The roof sagged inward and both Petunia and Dudley lunged forward to pull Vernon into the hall. They tumbled backward, skidding along the floor as the roof fell in and spells tore overhead.

They were trapped, they had no way to escape and they were relying on a fake magical owl to get them help.

An almost hysterical giggle that sent chills up Petunia's spine sounded from the top of the stairs. All three Dursley turned at the sound. Vernon opened his mouth intending, no doubt, to make some stupid comment about trespassing but before he could so much as begin the noises around them changed.

It was a subtle shift but enough to give even Vernon pause. The witch froze mid giggle and turned on the spot. Her eyes widened in horror just as she was hit with enough force to blast her right over their heads. She hit the wall behind them with a sickening crunch that cracked the plaster. She slid to the floor dead.

Up the destroyed stairs a man was scrambling. His dark hair fell into his grey eyes but though his look was fierce there was nothing about him that shared the same manic delight of the other wizards attacking the Dursley home. The man ducked sharply and a spell flew over his head. He spun around to fire back a spell of his own and a woman appeared out of thin air at his back.

'Morning, Petunia,' the woman said breezily as though she hadn't just arrived unannounced in the middle of a battle that was destroying the Dursley home. 'Offer you a lift?'

Petunia reached out and grasped the offered hand without thinking twice. Dudley surged forward to grasp the hand over his mother's shoulder and both gripped Vernon tightly. With a lurch the three Dursley's were pulled forward as the house around them vanished and they were squeezed through the smallest of spaces. It felt like all of the air was being squashed out of them, like they were being pushed and pulled through a very small hole.

Finally, with a sickening lurch things snapped back and they found themselves sprawled, not on the filthy floor of their Privet drive home but on the cool and rough surface of a country lane. Dudley curled into a ball while he waited for his insides to settle back into their rightful places. Petunia scrambled unsteadily to her feet, managing to sway only slightly while Vernon rolled over and heaved onto the road.

Ruby Reid reached out and with a great deal of difficulty heaved Dudley to his feet. She left Vernon where he was just in case he threw up again. She was wearing new shoes. She gave the Dursley's a moment to regain their wits before she offered her hand once more to Petunia Dursley.

'Hello!' she greeted cheerfully. 'I'm Ruby Reid, Molly's godmother.'

Petunia shook the proffered hand, still a little shocked by the sudden chaos of her early morning. It took her a moment to shove past resentments aside and work out that the woman before her was a friend of Harry's and that she was his daughter's godmother. Behind her Dudley was helping a sputtering and gibbering Vernon to his feet. He wasn't purple anymore but he was a sickly green colour that did not bode well for the future of his meals.

'What?' he sputtered. 'What is the meaning of this?'

They ignored him; there were more important questions to be asking.

'Where are we?' Dudley gasped out, propping his father up was rather draining.

'Hollow Knight,' Ruby replied. 'We're about a thirty minute walk from Harry's.'

The prospect of a thirty minute walk on top of the other trauma of the morning proved to be too much for Vernon. The anger he'd been suppressing exploded out of him in the form of an undignified series of grunts that, in his rage, were unintelligible.

Ruby looked at him intently as though she was considering his every word with as much concentration as he obviously thought they deserved. When he ran out of steam she turned away from him and carried on speaking like he'd never spoken.

'We never expected them to make such an open attack on you,' Ruby told Petunia and Dudley apologetically. 'We thought he'd send one or two Death Eaters to drag you out.'

Petunia nodded tiredly, the adrenalin was wearing off and she was starting to shake slightly. It didn't help that she was only wearing a nightgown and that the weather was quite cool for midsummer. Her bare feet hurt on the rough road and it was just starting to hit her that her home was gone. She had no doubt that most of their things would have been destroyed in the attack.

Not to mention that they'd likely never be able to return to Privet Drive.

'I'm hungry,' Dudley announced, startling an hysterical laugh out of his mother.

'Come on, Big D, it's a bit of a walk.'

Despite her easy attitude and relaxed manor there could be no mistaking the way Ruby's eyes constantly darted around the area. She was on edge waiting to pounce should they be suddenly attacked. There was a vein pulsing in Vernon's temple but he didn't have breath to spare for any more angry words. He was by far the least fit of his family and the early morning brisk stroll was certainly taking its toll.

Ruby had landed them on the other side of the small village of Hollow Knight. Their walk took them through the village, it was quiet and still in the early hour. The only light on in the entire village that wasn't a street light was one small one in the bakery. It took them next to no time to pass through the village, even with Vernon panting along at the rear.

Once they'd passed through the village Ruby led the way down a quiet lane until, just as the sky was beginning to lighten, they stopped in front of a set of high iron gates set into a thick hedge. A long gravel drive sloped up and around a corner. Ruby pressed her palm flat against the gates and they popped open with a slight sizzling sound.

It wasn't until they'd rounded a bend in the path that they caught sight of Harry's house. Vernon had to stop when his shocked sputtering caused him to choke. Dudley smacked him hard on the back even as he gaped up at the house. He wasn't stupid, some part of him had understood that Ally had quite a bit of money but the house before them was something Vernon would have sold an arm and a leg to have the rights to gloat over.

The front door opened as they approached and huge orb like eyes peered out at them. Petunia held in her startled cry but Vernon stopped dead in his tracks a look of pure horror on his face. Ruby didn't notice, she stepped right up to the door and slipped in passed the creature that had opened it.

Tired, sore and hungry Dudley didn't care what had opened the door as long as it could point him to the fridge. He followed Ruby inside with barely a wince as he passed the short creature that could only be an elf. The pointed ears were a bit of a giveaway even if he couldn't fathom why the elf would be wearing a simple blue tunic with a funny crest stamped on one corner.

Petunia followed her son inside but she had to really put her weight into it as Vernon had grabbed a hold of her elbow. She nodded politely to the elf even as Vernon tried to edge his large bulk around it.

The door had barely closed behind them, leaving them staring at a small entry hall, when a pillar of flames erupted ahead of them. The three Dursley's leapt back as Ally appeared amongst the orange flames. She looked exhausted. There was blood dribbling from the corner of her mouth and a large bruise forming across her right temple. She regarded the Dursley's with a tired but kind look as she slipped off her travelling cloak and handed it over to the elf for cleaning.

'Thank you, Tilly.'

The elf took the proffered cloak without a word and disappeared into the depths of the house. Ruby regarded Ally with a keen eye as she took in all the aches and pains. Satisfied there wasn't anything either needed to be concerned about she poked a thumb over her shoulder to gesture at the Dursley's.

'Where do you want this lot?'

'Kitchen,' Ally suggested with a yawn. 'Harry should be back soon and he's going to want breakfast.'

Ally led the way through to the back of the house and into a large kitchen. Unlike any kitchen the Dursley's were used to there were no gleaming new appliances, no microwave or dishwasher. Instead there was an old fashioned stove and oven. There was no refrigerator in sight but instead there was an old ice box. It was the perfect image of what a kitchen would have been before the invention of electricity.

In all honesty it had changed very little since Ally's mother had lived there as a child.

Ally went straight to the bench and took out her wand, grabbing ingredients as she went. Ruby sank into a chair at the kitchen table and rested her head on her arms. She watched Ally walk around the kitchen preparing breakfast for everyone. Dudley sank into another chair but he watched Ally with his mouth gaping open as she used her wand to light the stove or set knives cutting food on their own.

Petunia, showing that though she didn't like it magic was something that had once been part of her life, sat primly in a chair and looked around the kitchen with the keen eye of a neighbourhood gossip. She took in the scattered boots by the back door, the cookbooks on the shelf above the stove and the myriad of other little things that were perfectly at home in any old kitchen but that had a strange and unique air when put in the context of a magical kitchen belonging to Harry.

Vernon took the chair furthest from the magical goings on and stared resolutely out the window into the garden.

Without any conscious decision to do so Ally started humming as she cooked. It was one of the new songs by the Weird Sisters and soon Ruby was humming along. The music seemed to make things even more tense for the Dursley's and by the time Ally placed a plate before each of them they were stiff and on edge. She was just about to put the last plate down when the slam of a door echoed through the house followed by a heavy bark.

Ruby looked up from her plate suddenly alert and Ally paused with Vernon's plate still hovering in her hand above the table. Both women looked toward the kitchen door as a huge black dog came bounding into the room with a blanket wrapped bundle hanging from its huge and powerful jaws. The bundle was giggling happily.

Ally gave an exasperated though slightly relieved sigh as she snatched her daughter from Sirius' jaw. With Molly safely in her mother's grip Sirius morphed from dog to man and took a seat at the table. Pulling a plate of eggs and sausage toward him and digging in with a fork. He paused when he noticed the way the Dursley's were staring at him.

'What?'

Ruby leaned over the table and pulled him into a tight hug by grabbing the front of his shirt. It was awkward and uncomfortable and barely lasted a second before she'd sat back down and started to eat like nothing had happened. With a shrug Sirius went back to his sausage and Ally took her place at the table.

Molly sat on her mother's lap and gazed around at the table with big wide blue eyes.

'How bad was it?' Petunia asked finally, surprising everyone by being the first to speak.

Sirius paused in eating and actually looked at Petunia. Back when Lily and James had first met things were already pretty rocky between Lily and her sister. Sirius had met the woman exactly once and given at the time he'd be kidnapping Lily he probably hadn't made the best of impressions. Though given it was Petunia he didn't figure a good impression would have been possible at all.

Sirius couldn't be sure Petunia even knew who he was but she at least recognised him from her home earlier. 'Completely destroyed,' he told her. 'We managed to capture or kill most of the Death Eaters but a few escaped. One of them set the place alight before he went. You won't be going back there in a hurry.'

Petunia pursed her lips and nodded once. She was doing a decent job of not showing how distressed she really was. Vernon on the other hand was at risk of choking on the sausage he'd been too hungry to ignore. The mere idea that freaks like Harry had come in and destroyed the home he'd worked very hard to create ruffled some pretty big feathers.

'Where will we go?' Dudley asked, making it his job to stop his father from saying or doing something stupid.

'We have safe houses set up all over Britain,' Ally explained. 'We'll find one suitable for you but I suggest you withdraw Dudley from school and make some other more drastic changes to your life.'

'We will do no such thing!' Vernon barked. 'How dare you!'

Whatever other arguments he might have been about to put up was silence by the sudden appearance of a silver dog Patronus running into the kitchen. Ron's voice filled the room with quick precise words.

'Granger's under attack.'

Sirius mournfully placed his fork back down on the table and pushed his chair back. Across the table Ruby did the same. She stood with a yawn and took one last gulp of juice.

'No rest for the wicked,' Sirius quipped.

Ruby shot him a withering look that didn't really hold much annoyance and led the way out of the kitchen through the back door. They walked toward the forest and stepped just into the tree line before they disapparated. Ally sighed in an exhausted sort of why.

'It never stops.'

To make matters worse not two minutes after Ruby and Sirius had left the back door burst open and Harry came in. He was supporting an unconscious and bloody Daphne while Abby behind him was supporting Stephanie with the help of Emmy. Both Daphne and Stephanie were severely injured. Multiple cuts and bruises spread across their bodies like ugly splotches of art. Blood dripped onto the floor as their supporters dragged them inside.

Ally was on her feet in an instant. She shoved Molly as gently as possible into a bassinet in the corner, shouted for Tilly and went quickly to Harry's side to take some of Daphne's weight. It wasn't that she was particularly heavy but carrying a dead weight is never easy.

'Tilly, send for Becca. Now!' Harry ordered.

The elf nodded sharply and disappeared with a crack like a whip. Harry and Ally led the way out of the kitchen and down the hall where what had once been a large room for entertaining guests had been turned into a make-shift triage. Both pairs placed the injured girls down as gently as possible on beds and went to work healing and diagnosing what they could.

'She's opened up the chest wound again,' Harry said hurriedly, ripping buttons in his haste to expose the large and aggressively bloody wound on Daphne's chest that had been slowly healing for months. Any good that had been done by her recent treatment with phoenix tears seemed to have been undone by whatever spells had hit her.

Stephanie didn't look to be much better. The combination of spells that had hit her had shattered more than a few of her bones. In some places the bones were breaking through skin. Abby had knocked her out to spare her from the pain and the horrible sight. Stephanie had already thrown up once at the sight of so many bones meeting the dawn light.

Rather than stay in the kitchen as would have been the sensible thing to do, the Dursley's had followed the group into the pseudo hospital. Petunia let out a shrill scream when she saw all of the blood and sat down hurriedly on a spare bed and looked firmly away. Vernon turned an interesting shade of green and hurried from the room back in to the kitchen where things were less gory and there was food to be had.

Dudley stepped forward and asked if there was anything he could do. One look at his pale, chalk white face had Harry suggesting he take his mother and go back to the kitchen. Dudley didn't argue. As much as he would have liked to help he couldn't help feeling that he was more likely to be sick all over whatever task he was given.

A sharp crack rent the air and then a pair of firm hands was pushing Harry out of the way, wand at the ready to perform healing spells and other restorative measures. The healer from St Mungo's and her trainee took charge immediately, barking out orders left and right that Harry and Abby hurried to follow. Ally and Emmy took a step back and let Becca run the show.

'What happened?' Ally asked Emmy in an undertone. She didn't want to interrupt the stream of instruction flowing from the two healers' mouths.

'We were ambushed,' Emmy explained. Her voice was scratchy and she was not without her fair share of cuts and bruises. 'They got the drop on us, I don't know when, but the last place we tracked them to was a trap. They came at us from all sides and had anti-apparation jinxes all over the place. We had to leave Susan behind to get these two out of there.'

'You left her behind?' Ally repeated.

'Had to,' Emmy confirmed, though she didn't sound at all thrilled by the idea. 'We took most of them down but one or two just wouldn't give. There were a few alive when we left; I just hope Susan is alright.'

'She'll be fine,' even as she spoke those assuring words Ally wasn't sure whose benefit they were for. 'She'll be fine.'


	3. Chapter 3

**a/n: **don't die of shock but yes, i'm updating. hopefully things will be a little more regular now. anyway, this one is short but the point is i finally got my writing mojo back. please read, review and most of all enjoy.

**Chapter 3**

It was quiet on the street when they arrived. There was no sound of a battle being waged. No sound of a fight being won or lost. There was nothing but silence and the heavy knowledge that they were too late.

There were signs of the battle that had taken place. Blood splashed the pavement; scorch marks left their imprint on a low garden wall. There were no fallen Death Eaters on the ground to show whether the battle had been won or lost. There were no bodies of Order members either but that was no comfort.

Fred went left, George went right. They circled the scene of the battle looking for any sign of Susan, any sign that she'd gotten away. Even a sign that she'd been taken would have been a start but there was nothing.

'This isn't right,' Fred whispered with a shiver. The air was heavy with a cold that had nothing to do with temperature and it was making him want to leave.

'I don't like this,' George agreed.

They came together across the road from where they had started and stood together looking back over ground they'd already covered. The small neighbourhood park would never be the same again. Even the muggles would know something had happened, something terrible. The twins turned to go and that was when Fred triggered the spell.

There hadn't been any signs of it before but the moment Fred took a step forward his foot collided with something invisible and the illusion shattered. All around them the early morning seemed to quiver and then it settled leaving them gazing out at a very different scene.

Blood still marred the pavement, scorch marks remained on the garden wall. The silence still prevailed. But now there was a swing set in the middle of the park. It stood in the centre of a circle of burned grass; the old red paint had bubbled and peeled from the heat of the fire.

Susan Bones was strung up in the chains of the swings. Her sightless eyes stared out at the twins. Blood covered her face and stained her hair. Her clothes were torn and ripped open to expose her naked flesh. The words 'blood traitor' had been carved into her chest.

For one horrifying moment neither twin moved and then they were turning away, George bent over, retching while for Fred the world seemed to tilt a little. Neither were strangers to death but this was the first they had seen of one of their own.

Fred recovered first. Fighting off another wave of dizzying shock he crossed the park until he stood within reach of Susan. He reached out, faltered, and then finally reached out to close her eyes. Tears blurred his vision but he clenched his jaw tightly and pulled a portkey from his pocket.

He tenderly pressed the portkey into the front of her shirt. She would not travel alone. George came up behind his brother and reached out to place his hand over Fred's. When the portkey activated it tugged at all three of them away from the gruesome scene.

A wail of grief and loss met them at the other end.

* * *

It didn't rain the day of Susan's funeral. Going against any convention it was a bright and sunny day with not a cloud in the sky. The only people in attendance were her closest friends and family. Every member of the ADADA was gathered around the coffin listening as a woman who had never known her spoke words of platitude that could have been about anyone.

Harry stood with Ally, his face an impassive mask. The only sign that he was feeling anything was in the strength of his grip on Ally's hand. Ally was crying silently, she made no noise nor moved to wipe her tears away.

Susan's mother sobbed openly, curled against her husband and completely unable to stand on her own feet. Her aunt remained as frozen as Harry. She stood tall and firm with a stern look upon her face that said whoever killed her niece would pay. Harry had already vowed to Susan's parents that he would do all he could to bring her killers to justice.

After the funeral Susan's parents left to mourn their loss surrounded by loved ones while the ADADA returned to Grimmauld place. There wasn't a single member of the Bones family that blamed anyone but Voldemort for Susan's death.

Mrs Weasley was another matter entirely.

Susan's death seemed to have provided her with the justification she was looking for. In the two days since Susan's death Mrs Weasley had done everything she could to convince her children to leave the fight to the grownups. She was being even more abrupt and rude to Ally than ever before and she was going so far as to give Harry the cold shoulder.

Far from turning her children from the cause all her angry and fearful behaviour was doing was driving them away from her. Ron hadn't been home since the news broke, not since his mother had made a particularly disdainful comment. Not that it didn't work out better for him anyway, he'd been glued to Daphne's side helping her heal and scouring book after book to find a cure for her cursed wound.

Ginny was hiding out at Luna's and the twins had moved into the apartment above their joke shop. If it had been possible Arthur Weasley would have camped out on the twins' couch but he had to stand beside his wife even if just to keep some semblance of peace.

No one had heard from Dumbledore since he'd had that incident earlier in the summer that Snape had to rescue him from, he'd offered no contact to suggest he'd even heard the news.

Now, sitting around the table in the basement kitchen, the ADADA came together to mourn a lost friend the only way they knew how: by sharing stories and laughing about near misses and remembering the kind of person Susan was.

They gave themselves one night to mourn for that was all the time they had.

* * *

The blow came out of nowhere. Ginny was seeing stars before she'd even had the chance to notice someone was there in the dark with her. The ground was rough beneath her as she scrambled backward, rough gravel bit into her palms no doubt deep enough to draw blood. When she'd put some distance between her and her attacker, she looked up and felt her blood run cold.

Tangled black hair. High cheek bones. Perpetual psychotic laughter. Bellatrix Lestrange hovered over Ginny with a delighted cackle. She spun her wand lazily in a circle and Ginny's own wand was snatched out of its holster. Bella caught it with a twisted grin and took a threatening step forward.

Wandless, Ginny tore the knife from her boot and cautiously got to her feet. She doubted she'd have any real chance against Bella with nothing but a knife but she'd be damned if she was going to go down without a fight.

'If it isn't the little Weasley girl,' Bella delighted in a sing-song voice. 'All alone and in the dark.'

Ginny took a step back and collided with something very big and very solid. And slightly furry.

'She ain't alone,' Hagrid's voice boomed out in the darkness.

Bella faltered for a moment but how could a failed giant of a wizard hope to compete with her?

'Hello, cousin.'

Something sharp and heavy slammed into the back of her head and Bella crumpled. Magical unconsciousness could be undone with a spell. Having your brain rattled about took a little more skill and a lot more time to undo. It also gave Sirius some satisfaction, after years of her annoying presence as a child to crack her head open was cathartic.

'I hate being bait,' Ginny moaned with a shudder. 'Next time you be the bait. Where are we taking her?'

'Looks like Filch'll finally get to use those chains.'

Despite the situation and the fear she just experienced, Ginny couldn't help but snort in amusement.

Sirius bound Bella tightly in three different sets of heavily spelled chains. She looked like a metal mummy but they weren't about to take any chances. Even without a head wound to make her crazy Bella was unpredictable enough, who knew how long something like that could really hold her for?

They used a portkey to travel directly into one of Hogwarts deepest dungeons. The walls were covered in mould and the air was heavy with damp. The torches barely made any impact on the darkness. It was definitely one of the creepiest rooms Hogwarts had to offer and that included the Snape's office.

Ron was waiting for them when they arrived and he moved forward quickly to secure Bella to a fourth set of chains hanging from the ceiling. If she managed to get free from these they were as good as dead. Not only were the chains spelled to be impervious to other spells but they were unbreakable and the room itself had been spelled so heavily that you actually experienced a feeling like walking through custard while entering.

The air was so thick with wards and spells that it actually felt heavy. They weren't taking any chances on Bella, she was far too important. There were no windows, no portraits, no amenities. She'd have to earn those privileges and knowing the kind of person Bella was that wasn't about to happen.

'She's bleeding pretty heavily,' Ron observed, pushing back a thick layer of hair with the tip of a knife. 'If she dies, we'll get nothing from her.'

Sirius shrugged. 'Head wounds always bleed a lot; you should have seen Tonks the other night. She was soaked through before we could get her home and she was fine.'

Ron nodded before stowing his knife away in an inside pocket of his jacket. A gift from the twins, it was thing of beauty made from dragon hide. Ginny had joked that he'd sleep in it if he thought he could get away with it.

'We're done, then?' Ginny asked.

Ron nodded. 'No questions tonight, let her wake on her own in here.'

More than happy to get out of the creepy dungeon Ginny led the way out. Hagrid was the one that had to pull the heavy door closed. When the wood settled into place the jam sealed tightly and the whole thing became one with the wall. The only way you'd know it was there was if you knew it was there. It looked just like every other bit of wall down there.

'Is that air tight?' Sirius wondered. 'How much air has she got?'

'About six hours,' Ron replied, wholly unconcerned. 'We'll have to open the door every six hours to resupply the room.'

'Pity.'

Two middle aged Aurors were stationed outside the room. One was missing an ear and several fingers but the other looked to be relatively whole. They nodded as the group left before going back to their posts.

'We have two man teams on six hour shifts. The room will be opened and resupplied three hours into each shift; I don't want something happening on guard change.'

'You're too good at this,' Ginny told her brother. 'What the hell will you do when Voldemort's gone?'

'Have kids, I suppose,' Ron answered with a thoughtful frown.

Ginny's surprised laughter preceded them up and out of the dungeons.

* * *

It was the sound of raised voices that woke Arthur from a deep and comfortable sleep in which he had not dreamed of anything scarier than what it would feel like to be a grandfather. Bill and Fleur's children, he hoped, the others were far too young to be starting a family. One boy with a child at fifteen was enough.

Something broke downstairs and he thought he better get up and find out what was going on before somebody went as far as to blow up the kitchen. He was taken aback when he rushed into the kitchen and found it full to bursting with family members. All of his boys were sitting around the table as were Harry and Fleur while Ginny sat in his usual place at the head of the table.

Racking his half asleep brain for a reason he was alarmed to realise that it was Ginny's birthday.

The raised voices were that of his wife and Ginny, who had apparently informed her mother the only reason they were all there was because birthdays were a time for celebration and family. It wasn't because she'd suddenly been forgiven for her mother's abhorrent response to Susan's death.

'Happy birthday, Ginny,' Arthur greeted, bending to place a kiss on the top of her head before taking the free seat to her left.

Breakfast was awkward. Mrs Weasley kept banging about ensuring no one was left wondering what her thoughts were. Though they tried to keep conversation light it had that awkward stilted nature that comes from inadvertently highlighting something by talking about everything but the something you don't want to talk about.

Despite the awkwardness things weren't going all that badly until an offhand comment made by Fred had Mrs Weasley accidently exploding the bowl of pancake batter.

'I can't, I'm meeting Emmy's parents.'

Every head at the table turned to look at Fred in surprise and they all ended up spattered in pancake batter. George's surprised look changed the quickest to a sly grin but no one reacted as fast as Mrs Weasley.

'You're all going to end up dead and I'll never know what happened.'

A little confused by the subject change, all eyes were on Mrs Weasley as she turned to face them all. Her eyes were red from crying and she was covered in creamy batter but it did nothing to detract from the terror in her every move. Her body shook and it was hard to say if it was because of anger or tears.

'This family is falling apart and I can't seem to stop it. You'll die for some stupid reason and I'll never know but for the fact that the clock says you're gone.'

'Mum-'

'No, Ron. No. It's time to stop this nonsense.'

'Mum-'

'I said enough, Ginny.'

'No, Molly.'

The entire Weasley family gaped at Arthur; his unexpectedly quiet rebuke had the same amount of impact on Mrs Weasley as it would if all of them had shouted at her. He stood firm in his beliefs but Arthur spent the majority of his time keeping the peace, he'd never so forwardly denied her.

'I am proud of what our children are doing. If they can make a difference in this fight then it gives me more hope for the future. They are helping, Molly, I only wish you could see that.'

Mrs Weasley made to speak but he wasn't finished.

'I know it's hard, I know that what you see is the possibility of your children lost. Of death too young but I am incredibly proud of the strength they show every day. They know what is out there, Molly, and they choose to fight. No one made them; no one forced them to make this decision. Our children chose to fight for those who can't. Our children chose to be their own kind of heroes.'

'I can't,' Mrs Weasley cried, the raw emotion she displayed made all of her children uncomfortable. It felt like a scene they weren't supposed to be watching, the emotion too raw, too deep, for them to see. 'They're our children.'

'Yes, they are. We raised them to do the right thing and they are doing so much more than that.'

Mrs Weasley crumbled and it was Ron this time that went to her. He had been the most vocal against her in the last few days and it just made it all the harder for her when he came to her and held her while she cried.

Molly Weasley was an incredibly strong woman. She'd lost most of her family to war and she'd come out stronger than ever. Losing her children would break her.

'We know, mum,' Ron whispered. 'We know.'


	4. Chapter 4

**a/n: **yes i AM updating. Please don't die of shock, i can't read your thoughts if you're dead/unconcious from shock. I'm so very sorry for the wait but i'm not sure i can say for sure when the next chapter will be up. I apologise in advance for any horribly long delays. Happy reading!

**Chapter 4**

Standing on the steps of Gringotts Harry had a clear view down Diagon Alley. Witches and wizards were hurrying about doing their shopping, stopping to chat with friends or admire things in shop windows.

They were not scurrying about in fear or hiding away indoors doing their shopping by owl order. It would have been safer for them if they had. But in a way, this hustle and bustle of a busy magical street was a good thing. Diagon Alley was staying strong as a reason for hope and life.

Standing on the steps of Gringotts Harry could see what he was fighting for. He could also see what he was about to fight through. The ADADA, or what was left of it, was calling it guard duty. But it wasn't the fun kind of guard duty that came with protecting something that was guaranteed to come under attack. It was actually the boring kind that was really babysitting and largely involved answering one inane question after the other about Hogwarts, the wizarding world and anything that seemed to pop into the head of the new muggle-born students.

Harry had successfully avoided guard duty the first week by the fortunately (alright unfortunately) timed attack on a foreign ministry by some of Voldemort's supporters. He'd been out of the country being as diplomatic as possible with a ministry party while really attacking back and stopping any more attacks of a similar nature.

This week, however, things were pretty quiet on the Voldemort front. It was assumed he was plotting some sort of grand extraction plan to rescue Bellatrix. Or to infiltrate the organisation for long enough to kill the liability she'd become.

Either way, it meant Harry was free and available to escort an eleven year old muggle-born named Tegan and her older sister Clara around Diagon Alley as she picked up her school supplies and got her first real glimpse of what it meant to be a witch.

Just exchanging muggle money had been an excruciating experience he'd soon forget. In all his years as a wizard Harry had never once had to exchange muggle money into wizarding gold or vice versa. Other people had always done it for him or it had been done automatically so he'd never bothered to think about things like exchange rates and fees.

Apparently Clara was ever practical, and while Harry had been eager to get a move on and Tegan had been gaping around the bank in open mouthed wonder, Clara had been asking a series of probing questions that had both annoyed the goblin serving them and earned her his respect.

Finally, just when Harry had been considering hauling her bodily from the bank, she'd announced she was done and pocketed the gold. Harry was left wondering if he'd have had this much trouble with Tegan's mother had she been the one able to make the trip.

Practicality told him they should go to Ollivander's first. Tegan may not be much use but he sure as hell was going to make sure she had some sort of a chance against and possible Death Eater attacks.

'Right, let's get this over with, then.'

Though not the most enthusiastic of words, Tegan was too excited to notice and Clara was smart enough to know from the get go that no kid wants to spend even one day of their holidays playing tour guide to a new student. That kind of irritation is universal.

Ollivander's was empty when they arrived which wasn't all that unusual, there wasn't much of a market for spare wands. They were a necessity, yes, but Harry couldn't imagine they were a well paid one.

'Ah, Potter, looking for a back up wand?'

Unlike the first time Ollivander had appeared out of nowhere Harry didn't jump. He merely turned to greet the old wand maker with a handshake and a grim smile.

'I have no need for a spare, Ollivander; I'm just here to show around a first year.'

The look on Ollivander's face reflected just how Harry felt about the task but his was tempered by the excitement of fitting a new wand to a young witch. Harry wandered about the shop while Ollivander did his thing, coming to stop at the window so he could stare out at the street.

Dotted here and there amongst the crowd were ministry Aurors; hiding in plain sight they were seated outside Florean Fortescue's enjoying ice cream and what little sun was peeking out through the Dementor's breeding mist. Which always gave Harry a rather large case of the wiggins when he had to think about _that_ crime against nature. Other Aurors were pretending to window shop or arguing over the price of unicorn hair.

The fact that none of the others had had any trouble over the last week and a half gave him no comfort. He was ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. Of course, as Ally like to remind him, he was like that twenty four seven so why should a quick trip through Diagon Alley with a muggle and a muggle-born be any different?

There was the sound of delighted clapping behind him and he turned to see that Clara had made a shower of blue stars shoot from the end of a wand. Unlike when he purchased his wand at age eleven Tegan was given something a little extra with hers.

'Ministry decree,' Ollivander explained, showing Harry a copy of the pamphlet he'd given Tegan.

Harry flipped through it quickly. He'd heard a rumour that the ministry was trying to put together a guide to staying safe but he hadn't realised they'd gotten as far as actually printing it. It was something the junior aurors had been tasked with and clearly they'd taken the challenge with gusto. The brief pamphlet was actually useful. It had a few good tips on how to protect your home, a few tricks to getting away safely and where to go when you needed to run.

'Can I have this?'

It wasn't until their last stop of the day at Flourish and Blott's that things turned bad. Harry was browsing through the section on offensive magic when an explosion rocked the alley. Books tumbled down around him and he heard Tegan scream. Gritting his teeth he shoved the fallen books away from him and stormed across the shop to where a witch was hastily shoving Tegan and Clara out of sight under the counter. Muffled shouts suggested the clerk was buried somewhere in the biographies.

'Stay there!' Harry snapped. 'Protect them,' he ordered the witch who had been doing her own shopping when the explosion occurred.

The witche's dropped shopping was beside the counter where she'd been about to pay for her books. Harry didn't recognise her but the witch wasn't stupid. She looked to be around Mrs Weasley's age but had none of the dumpy curves or gentle smile. Her eyes were sharp and though her hand shook slightly as she gripped her wand she stood guard over the two innocent girls with a look of severe determination.

Confident they were in the best care possible given the circumstances, Harry stormed out of the shop not caring what part of the fight he was walking into.

Gringotts was under attack.

A dozen or more goblins lay dead and dying on the front steps while half a dozen more fought side by side with a handful of Aurors. Around thirty Death Eaters were scattered about the alley creating chaos and destruction wherever they went.

Not three feet away from Harry, a tall, willowy witch was cackling delightedly as she lit fire after fire. A boy Harry recognised as a third year Ravenclaw from Hogwarts was hurriedly trying to put out the fires while his younger brother hid under a table and his parents engaged yet another Death Eater in a duel.

Stepping into the battle Harry shot a deadly curse at the cackling witch's back. The spell slammed into her, freezing her in place before her body dissolved into sand. He didn't stop to help the young boy putting out fires or his parents. Instead, Harry darted off down the alley toward Gringotts, shooting spells at every Death eater he passed.

Another explosion rocked the alley but this one was followed by multi-coloured fireworks which told Harry the Weasley twins had just joined the fight. Loud bangs and startled laughter filtered toward him from down the alley but he was too focused on getting to Gringotts to admire the twins joke shop and whatever pranks they'd turned nasty on some Death Eaters.

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was a brightly coloured blur out of the corner of his eye as Harry blasted his way through a cluster of Death Eaters, standing back to back in a circle of aurors. Something sharp hit his side and he stumbled, falling to one knee. Rather than slamming into solid ground his knee sank deeply into no longer solid stone, pulling him off balance.

Harry tried to tug his knee free but it wouldn't budge. He looked up sharply when something wet and sticky slammed into him, forcing him forward onto his hands. Completely taken by surprise by the unfamiliar spell, Harry felt real fear. The spell was slowly spreading across his body, soaking into his clothes and forming a hard shell that clung close to him. He couldn't move, couldn't flame, he was encased in solid something and half sunk into the ground.

He refused to let panic take over. He did give himself a bit of a mental slap to the head for being too confident and not properly protecting himself. Of course, he wasn't sure he could have protected himself from whatever this spell was, anyway.

Around him the alley was oddly blurred, the strange shell an opaque blue that morphed the outside world into nothing but shadowy blobs. Three such blobs were moving toward him. Harry's heart pounded in his ears and he knew that his real fear was translating itself to both Ally and their daughter because the tattoo that bound him to Molly was burning something fierce.

'Think, think, think!' he hissed through unmoving lips.

Flaming didn't work, finite incantatum didn't work. Anything non-verbal and wandless he threw at the shell merely dissipated against the strange material.

The blobs were getting closer and Harry could feel sweat dripping down his neck. This was definitely not how he intended to go out. Could this even kill him? How was he breathing? He was getting air from somewhere. Wasn't he?

Apparently not, suffocation seemed to be the main cause for his panicked state. The more aware of it he was the worse it became. Something green smashed against the outside of the strange shell and he forced himself to calm down. Slow even breathes and think, think, think.

Suddenly, four more blobs appeared in front of him, stepping between him and the original approaching blobs that he assumed were Death Eaters. The closest blob seemed to be right in front of him. It made some sort of movement and then Harry's ears were ringing with a high pitched musical sound that made his eyes water as his teeth chatter.

Cracks appeared in his shell and the world came back as his cage shattered. Dennis Creevey gazed down at him in worry, a huge mallet in his grip. Magic, apparently, couldn't break the thing but a muggle tool could.

'Alright Harry?'

Harry nodded in reply, gasping in air and taking in the altered scene around him. Neville Longbottom was facing off against three Death Eaters. To his left his formidable grandmother was firing off a series of nasty, borderline illegal, spells that were knocking back Death Eaters with a considerable amount of force.

Colin Creevey was duelling side by side with an auror, blood flowing at an alarming rate from his nose. The fight in front of Gringotts was over, the steps littered with the dead, both goblins and wizards alike. Several buildings were on fire but the third year Ravenclaw boy had been joined by numerous other witches and wizards who had emerged from shops and under tables now that the majority of the fighting was over.

Neville made one more sharp motion with his wand and the last Death Eater crumpled. Harry felt a little off kilter, the strange magical trap he'd been encased in had unsettled him more than he'd thought possible.

With Dennis and Neville's help Harry was pulled free of the ground and he gingerly tested how much weight he could put on the leg. It hurt like hell but it wasn't the worst injury he'd received in the last year.

'Better go, Harry,' Neville said. 'Aren't you looking out for some muggle-borns?'

'Merlin!' Harry swore, the sudden reminder had shaken him free of any lingering fear from the shell construction and he ignored the pain in his leg to run back up the alley toward Flourish and Blott's.

The front of the store looked almost untouched but just looking through the window you could see that the explosion hadn't been so kind inside. It reminded Harry of that time Mr Weasley had gotten into a fight with Lucius Malfoy; books were everywhere, the shelves tilting and emptied.

A disarming spell struck him when he stepped into the doorway but his wand remained secured in its spelled holster.

'It's me, Harry!' he called into the shop before taking a further step inside.

'Potter?'

The witch he had left guarding his charge's peered around the side of a fallen bookshelf. Her hair was burned and she had a cut across her left cheek. The body of a Death Eater lay at her feet.

'Tegan? Clara?'

'Here!' Tegan poked her head out from behind the counter. Her face was drained of colour but she was completely unharmed. Her sister hadn't faired so well, by the look of it she'd thrown herself in front of a spell meant for Tegan. Her lips were blue and she was taking shallow painful breathes. Blood soaked the front of her shirt.

'Is she going to die?' Tegan whispered, her voice trembling and tear soaked.

Harry crouched beside the two and tore open Clara's shirt, modesty be damned. Harry murmured a few healing spells and the bleeding eased up a bit but it was still bad enough that she would need a healer. He took an ordinary looking coat button from his pocket and pressed it into Tegan's hand.

'She's going to be fine but I need you to do something for me, alright?'

Tegan nodded shakily. Her wand was clutched tightly in her other hand, Harry noticed.

'That button is called a portkey; it's going to take you and your sister to a magical hospital. A healer is going to ask you a lot of questions but just explain to her what happened and answer what you can. Clara's going to be fine. Are you ready?'

'Y-yes.'

'Hold on tight to her.'

Tegan wrapped her arms around her sister, not releasing her grip on her wand or the portkey. Harry tapped her closed fist with his wand and Tegan and her sister vanished. Harry promised himself he would check on them later, before once more getting to his feet and walking out into the alley.

* * *

Unaware of the attempt to gain access to her vault, Bellatrix Lestrange wasn't really in a position to care either way. Something neither Ron nor McGonagall were particularly worried about.

The former had come down to ask a few questions and oxygenate the cell while the latter had come down from her office and her pre-term preparations to inquire as to whether or not the screaming was something they would have to put up with during the coming term.

'I'm not sure how she's doing it,' Ron admitted, closing the door on a particularly mournful wail and watching as the door once more merged into the wall. 'The room should be entirely sound proof but every now and then she starts laughing and it just sort of echoes around the castle.'

'Yes, well,' McGonagall pursed her lips, 'perhaps we could find a way to stop it before the students return next week?'

Unperturbed by her tone, Ron just smiled. They rounded the corner and almost collided with Albus Dumbledore. Ron opened his mouth to give a greeting or give an excuse for his presence but he froze and instead gaped at the headmaster. He looked awful, colour drained from his face, skin clammy and he was clutching his right hand as though it was hurting. Poking from the end of the sleeve of the headmasters robe, Ron could see that the hand looked blackened and dead. He was so surprised McGonagall was forced to elbow him in the ribs to snap him out of it.

Admittedly, McGonagall looked just as surprised to see the headmaster as he did. No one but Snape had seen the man all summer and that had only been for a brief ten minutes. Ten minutes which had not been enough to convey to Snape just how poorly the old man was.

'Albus, are you alright?' McGonagall gasped.

'You look like hell, sir,' Ron added rather rudely. 'No offense,' he added when McGonagall glared at him.

'I am fine, mister Weasley, may I ask what you are doing here?'

Ron shrugged but didn't offer an answer. There was an awkward moment where no one really wanted to speak and then McGonagall announced she had work to do and Ron scurried after her without bothering to give an excuse. At the end of the corridor both stopped and turned back to watch Dumbledore.

For a moment the old headmaster stayed put, gazing down the corridor without really seeing anything. Then he started walking again, down the way Ron and McGonagall had just come.

'Think he heard her screaming?'

'Without doubt.'

'Should we be worried?' Ron questioned.

For that McGonagall didn't have an answer.


	5. Chapter 5

**a/n: **Well once again all i can do is apologize profusely for the slow update. Real life got incredibly hectic and for someone who is relatively used to being lazy I was wholly unprepared. Thanks to all of those wonderful and kind people who left me supportive and encouraging reviews, you make it a hell of a lot easier to write.

**Chapter 5**

'Remind me why I'm packing?' Harry shouted down the hall to Ally.

With his head and arms shoved to the very back of the wardrobe as he dug around for his Hogwarts robes he was actually surprised that she could hear him. Her voice from behind him made him jump, dislodging an old dress robe of Ally's and revealing his missing school robes.

'Because you may be an ass kicking, Death Eater killing phoenix and a father already but you're still a teenager and you should get to experience some things the way everyone else does.'

'Your argument is getting thinner and thinner, you know that?'

Ally just shrugged. They'd been having the same argument for the last four days. Harry wanted to commute to school and Ally wanted him to stay. Every reason Harry came up with as to why his staying was pointless she came back with an argument as to why it was a good idea. Her latest suggestion that he needed to live some of his life like an ordinary teenager was ludicrous.

Unfortunately, as was the way with most things, she'd won. So there he was head stuck in the wardrobe at seven in the morning on September first trying to find his school things from where they'd been spread all over the house. At least when he'd been living with the Dursley's the furthest his stuff could get was about three feet away from him or under the loose floorboard beneath his bed.

It had taken two hours the night before to locate all of his quidditch gear and in the end they'd had to try a summoning charm which had unearthed the last glove in the garden shed. How it had gotten there—alone—was anyone's guess.

'Harry I'm not sure you're going to need this.'

Harry turned from the wardrobe to see Ally holding up a stuffed dragon with a small smile on her face. Harry frowned, unsure if he'd actually put it in there or if it had just gotten thrown in with some other stuff. True, he had gotten used to having to take all sorts of things when out with Molly, but he didn't think he'd gotten to the point of absently packing her favourite toys.

'See!' Harry sulked. 'That's just another reason I shouldn't be staying at school. What about Molly?'

Ally rolled her eyes. 'Harry you can come and see her any time you like, it's not like you can't come home I'm just saying you should at least spend three nights a week with your friends. Weekends, you're all mine but I think you need to do this.'

'I'll give it a month but if it's not working I'm moving home. This is ridiculous!'

After shooting her one final glare that went completely ignored by Ally—who was calmly refolding all of his clothes into his trunk—Harry stomped out of the bedroom and down the hall to Ally's study. Inside the floor had been covered in a maze of handwritten journals. Every time Harry saw them he couldn't help but snort, despite the fact that she'd been fired and that Dumbledore had been forced into teaching DADA for the rest of the year, each and every student had still completed the homework journal for the entire year and then sent it by owl to Ally. For weeks after the end of last term they'd been getting half a dozen owls every morning, each with a new journal and a letter of thanks or well wishes attached.

Somewhere, in one of the many stacks, Draco Malfoy's journal was sitting alongside a pile of other fifth years. The fact that Malfoy had also felt the need to send his journal told Harry something about the boy he wasn't all that sure he wanted to examine further. It was bad enough the blonde was now living with Andromeda, he got enough of Malfoy whenever he went to visit without adding on his interest in changing his ways.

Managing not to dislodge a single stack of books—a miracle of its own—Harry slipped a few books he thought might be useful from the bookcase on the wall alongside the desk and then turned to navigate his way back. Even retracing his own steps didn't stop him from knocking over one pile. When he crouched to restack it he very nearly set another tumbling after it. He understood there was a system in play but that didn't mean he understood why the system required the handwritten books to be stacked randomly all over the room.

Hopefully by the time Christmas came around Ally would have tidied the place up enough that he wouldn't keep tripping over things. He wasn't holding his breath, though.

Back in their room Ally had finished correctly folding and repacking his trunk and was looking around the room hoping that anything they'd missed or forgotten would suddenly leap out at her. They wouldn't, at least he didn't think they would. It was entirely possible she'd spelled some of his stuff before they'd emptied his trunk out at the end of last term. It certainly would have made packing easier if his things would just naturally return to his trunk when the time came.

Adding the books to the trunk he pushed the lid closed with a very decisive snap and tapped it with his wand to lock it up tight. If he had forgotten something it wasn't like he couldn't just flame home to get it. Of course, if he got his way then all of this stuff would just end up right back here in no time. That being said, Ally tended to get her way quite a lot more than he got his so he might very well end up needing it all.

Their argument behind them, though hardly resolved, they were just sitting down to have breakfast when a patronus loped into the kitchen and began issuing hurried warnings in a hushed whisper. No sooner had Snape's voice faded away than the fireplace flared to life and Moody's grizzly face appeared.

'Trouble,' he barked. 'Andromeda's under attack.'

Harry wasted only moments staring longingly at his breakfast before he snatched a piece of plain toast from his plate and sprinted from the kitchen. Ally was mere steps ahead of him, booted feet sprinting for the stairs and voice shouting orders for the house elves to take care of Molly. They waited only long enough to hear Kip's answering squeak before they charged toward the door. It was an interesting trick they'd started using, flaming while on the move. It always startled people who watched them disappear just moments before colliding with a door or a wall but it meant that they had a bit of momentum going when they arrived.

The fight going on at Andromeda's house was a bloody one. It wasn't an unusual observation to make but this was certainly worthy of the word. Someone had been smeared horrifically against a side wall. Nothing remained to identify the poor person, be they friend or foe, but a messy pink and red haze on the brick work.

Fire was raging inside the house, issuing from the open windows and doors was a thick black smoke that smelt oddly like peppermint. Inside the house someone was screaming. Harry and Ally exchanged looks, he raised an expectant eyebrow and she gave him a look back that told him quite clearly she would not be the one running into the burning building if he had any intention of sharing her bed in the near future. He rolled his eyes and they split up. While Ally ran toward the fight fast spilling from the tidy front yard out onto the street, Harry ran toward the side of the house and the sound of screaming.

He almost tripped over Draco Malfoy crossing the threshold; the boy was slumped against the open kitchen door looking strangely unharmed aside from some slight smoke inhalation which was making him cough. One of the fingers on his left hand was bent at a strange angle but, given the sort of injuries Harry had walked away from battle with, it barely registered.

He stepped right over Malfoy and pretended he couldn't hear the Slytherin's plea for help. If he was still slumped there on the way out maybe Harry might consider dragging him free of the building. The flames steadily blackening the house were ordinary flames and Harry walked through them as easily as if they were just a warm summer rain.

He followed the sound of screaming through the kitchen and into the living room. The screaming wasn't coming from any person; rather it was coming from a small wooden box sitting on the mantle above the huge fireplace. Harry crossed the room in three quick strides and slammed the lid closed. For a moment there was an echo of the scream before only the sound of crackling wood and the muted sounds of the fight on the street could be heard.

Harry took a shallow breath so as not to inhale too much smoke and took a good look around. He'd never seen the screaming box before so chances were it wasn't something Andromeda had brought into the house. That left Malfoy or Death Eaters. Or Malfoy brought it in for the Death Eaters, not that that was any better.

Harry took a good look around the house, what was left of it in any case, but he found no signs of Andromeda and the only Death Eater he found was the burning body of an old and withered witch. The emptiness of the house and the screaming box didn't sit well with Harry, it was an element he couldn't account for and it set his teeth on edge. He backtracked through the house and found Malfoy still slumped just inside the door. This time, however, Harry could see why he hadn't made it any further despite his lack of injury.

Malfoy wasn't leaning against the wall or door; he was actually slumped against some sort of ward that formed a solid barrier that prevented him from leaving the building. That was most definitely not a precaution Andromeda had implemented against her nephew, it wasn't even something in the Order's arsenal.

Malfoy's eyes rolled over him before coming to stop locked with his. The look Malfoy gave was one of desperation, coughs racked his body and a grey sticky past dribbled from the corner of his mouth. Harry grunted with displeasure before he grabbed Malfoy by the shoulder and stepped through the barrier. While he met with no resistance he was pulled sharply back when Malfoy slammed into the barrier with a pained grunt.

Contact with another person clearly wasn't enough to get him through the barrier and the flames in the house were starting to spread through the kitchen. Even as he stood, studying the ward he couldn't see, Andromeda's potions shelf caught alight with a sharp crack. It issued forth a spectacular display of fireworks that bounced around the kitchen before dissipating on hitting the ceiling. A smell of rotting eggs filled the small room and both Harry and Malfoy gagged.

'H-help me...'

'I'm trying,' Harry replied with a grunt as he held his hand over where he assumed the wards began. He couldn't be sure but he thought he could feel a cold tingly sensation when he waved his hand over the threshold.

With an annoyed growl, Harry shoved his fist into the apparent ward and willed it to burst into flames. Whatever it was sparked purple and Malfoy yelped as purple sparks crackled across the barrier, shocking him. As soon as the purple crackling faded the barrier itself collapsed, sending Malfoy tumbling backward. Harry wasted no time seizing him by the arm and dragging him from the house.

Out in the street the fight was over, the sun higher in the sky than it should have been. Ally came running as soon as she saw him and threw her arms around him in a choking hold that caused him to release his supportive grip on Malfoy. The boy tumbled to the ground with an indignant yelp but Harry didn't much care, he was much more focused on Ally's rather out of character reaction to his reappearance.

'What happened? Where did you go?' she demanded. 'You've been gone hours!'

Harry blinked. His mouth dropped open and closed a few times at a complete loss for words. Eventually he managed a startled, 'I what?'

'You've been gone for three hours and we tried the house but we couldn't get in.'

'Huh.'

Harry studied the street with fresh eyes noting the appearance of Ministry wizards and even a healer bent over the prone form of a Death Eater. It certainly looked like he'd been gone longer.

'And you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about do you?'

'It felt like I was gone fifteen minutes,' Harry offered.

'Three hours...forty...one minutes,' Malfoy wheezed. 'Late...for train.'

Ally turned startled eyes on Malfoy who was bent over and coughing while Harry let out a surprised laugh. Despite the fact that Malfoy obviously had some answers, Harry found the whole thing just a tad ridiculous. Malfoy worrying over the Hogwarts Express when he was coughing up an ash filled paste. Then again, at least ridiculous was better than worrying over the fact that he'd been caught unawares by two magical attacks in under a week.

'Go,' Ally ordered, stealing a kiss. 'I'll deal with this.'

Harry nodded once and vanished.

It was precisely 10:59am when the new students of Hogwarts got their first glimpse of the famous Harry Potter. He appeared in a pillar of flames, issuing a string of curse words and dashing like a mad man for the train.

Somehow, it didn't do his image any harm.


	6. Chapter 6

**a/n: **Well its been way too long since i've updated but now that uni is over (for the most part, i'm only taking one summer unit) i can get back into writing something more interesting than an essay. Thank you to all of the wonderful people who left me reviews, you make this happen.

**Chapter 6**

'Not another bloody Lockhart.'

Ron's annoyed grumble drew Harry's attention away from his conversation with third year Kelly McDonald, and toward the staff table where Ron had been searching out their new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. They never had been able to get an answer out of Dumbledore regarding who he'd hired and McGonagall hadn't gotten much more than that the position had been filled.

The professor in question was a good looking man in his early thirties with perfectly styled black hair, a sprinkling of freckles across his nose and suspiciously perfect teeth. He was wearing shiny black robes and looking entirely to clean next to Professor Sprout with whom he was having some sort of conversation. The quality of said conversation was questionable as Sprout had a pained expression on her face and kept shooting pleading looks over the man's shoulder at Snape whenever his eyes wandered from her face.

Snape grimaced when he caught Ron's gaze and then turned back to engage the professor in conversation, rescuing a relieved looking head of Hufflepuff who turned to quickly strike up a conversation with Hagrid.

Needless to say Harry's opinion of the man was firmly alongside Ron's until further notice. On the other side of Ron Hermione was gazing at the man with a curious look while Ginny, opposite looked revolted.

'What's with the pretty boy?' she grunted, still thoroughly pissed off from her encounter with Pansy Parkinson on the train.

'Time's are getting desperate, apparently,' Ron scoffed.

'Ron!' Hermione scolded. 'We don't know anything about him; he could be a really experienced teacher.'

'Or another Lockhart,' Ron repeated his earlier assumption. 'Come on, let's get this over with already,' he complained, changing the subject to the delay in the start of the Sorting Ceremony. 'I've got about a hundred things to do before classes start tomorrow.'

'What could you possibly have to do?'

'Oh shush, Hermione, its starting,' Ginny admonished before Ron could snap back about the state of his office (his own fault) and whatever else it was he'd asked Daphne to remind him to do before classes started.

Felicity Aaron was up first. The nervous looking, petite red head was shaking visibly when she moved forward to take her place on the stool and try on the hat. For nearly a minute she sat there, the eyes of everyone in the hall on her, but in the end the hat placed her in Ravenclaw. Strangely the first three students went into Ravenclaw, before a tall lanky boy became the first to join Gryffindor. It was only then, as he was watching Sam Eddy slide onto the bench between Colin Creevey and Neville Longbottom, that Harry realised just how few new students there were. Just thirty in total and all looking positively terrified, it didn't matter if they were muggle born or not, there was a palpable sense of fear surrounding the new students.

Harry tried to point his discovery out to Ron but his attention had shifted back to the new professor. The yet to be named man was watching the sorting with open fascination, obviously not an old student of Hogwarts then and Harry wondered where he was from. Another question he'd have asked, this one of Hermione, but _she_ was too busy scrutinizing the new students to pay attention to his attempt to quietly gain her attention. With a sigh, Harry returned his attention to the new professor, maybe if he stared at the bloke he'd form some sort of opinion on where he was from and what sort of a teacher he'd be.

He didn't. About the only thing intense scrutiny revealed was that the new professor chewed his nails. Not a particularly useful piece of knowledge and certainly not something Harry felt he ever actually needed to know.

Thankfully, before boredom could seriously take hold, McGonagall placed the hat back on the stool and Filch scurried out of the Great Hall to return it and stool to where they belonged. Gryffindor only received six new students, a depressingly low number that had Ron muttering obscenities under his breath as he rethought certain defence strategies.

Dumbledore stood to make his speech but it was surprisingly short. In previous years, the pre-dinner speech had never been all that involved but his simple words of welcome were a little on the thin side even for him. Given how hungry everyone was though, no one complained.

The Gryffindor members of the ADADA ate in silence for a few minutes, Ron shovelled food into his mouth without seeming to notice what he was putting on his fork. This wasn't particularly unusual but he didn't usually do it with such a distant expression. Harry exchanged a confused look with Ginny and then had a quick silent battle to see which of them would broach the topic with Ron. Hermione seemed oblivious, her thoughtful gaze watching as Professor Sprout was once again engaged in reluctant conversation with the new professor.

'What's wrong, Ron?' Ginny eventually asked, hoping he didn't notice the annoyed sigh that accompanied her words.

'I'm thinking about all the things that need to happen this year now that Ally is gone.'

They all grimaced at that rather complex problem. Even when Ally hadn't been around for the end of the last year her teaching style and certainly her presence had still been felt in the way that the ADADA had taken control over a large portion of the students' learning. Dumbledore may have been standing at the front of the classroom but he hadn't done all that much to actively teach DADA.

This year there was a whole new teacher, a whole new group of students and the issue that was the mounting escalation of Voldemort's attacks to consider. They didn't have to be as active as last year, they could just sit back and let the new professor teach the students while they continued in the same pattern as the summer, launching guerrilla attacks on Death Eater raids, but it left a bad taste in each member of the ADADAs mouths.

'It's no good,' Ron said finally. 'We'll have to teach them something. Maybe we should offer tutoring? Or select some students who look like they could know what they're doing if we taught them right.'

'You should run drills,' Hermione contributed, surprising them because they hadn't realised she'd actually been listening. 'Like muggle fire drills,' she elaborated when no one quite seemed to know what to say. She rolled her eyes at their blank looks. 'Honestly, organise to run practices so the students know what to do if Hogwarts is attacked. Last year it was easier because Ally gave all the students a place they needed to go if such a thing happened and honestly it was a remote possibility but this year it's a great deal more likely and even more likely we'll have to stand and fight rather than flee.'

Harry and Ginny gaped open-mouthed at Hermione but Ron had a strange glint in his eyes and his grin was almost feral.

'Oh, Hermione you are _brilliant_.'

'I know.'

Ron looked like he could have leant across the table and kissed her but luckily, before any potentially relationship ending kissing could occur, the dishes emptied of the remains of dessert and Dumbledore stood.

'It is no secret,' the headmaster began, 'that the world we live in is a dangerous and often troubled place. The war being waged against Lord Voldemort has brought dark times upon us but here in this school we provide a beacon of light. Hogwarts will stand as a symbol for hope as long as any student wishes to come here to learn. While you are within these walls you will be shielded from the harsh acts of this war so I ask this of you, of all of you,' here his gaze locked on each of the members of the ADADA in turn, 'take advantage of this safe haven, learn all there is to know...'

Harry tuned out the rest of Dumbledore's speech, Hermione would relay the highlights and he was too angry at Dumbledore's words to truly take in anymore. Hogwarts was far from a safe haven, not only were the lessons themselves dangerous but Dumbledore was wrong when he said they'd be protected from the troubles of the war. As a beacon for the future, Hogwarts provided the most valuable target for Voldemort. Hermione was right in her warning, Voldemort would attack Hogwarts, whether in two weeks time or two months, Hogwarts would see battle. Telling the students it was a safe place to take refuge was just bollocks.

'...introduce Professor Vaughn.'

The new DADA professor bent his head in acknowledgment of the introduction but otherwise refrained from making a spectacle of himself. That didn't necessarily work in his favour but at least he'd held off on the dramatic entrance.

And then dinner was over and Ron was being dragged off to lead first years to Gryffindor tower by Hermione and Harry was left sitting at the table waiting for the masses to clear before he bothered trying to fight his way out of the Great Hall. A few of the older students were similarly holding back, some of the enthusiasm having worn off and a greater ability to stay up late after stuffing themselves with food having developed.

Stephanie slumped onto the bench beside him and watched the staff table thoughtfully. 'What do you think?'

'It's too early to say, but I reckon we're going to have our work cut out for us. If he is a competent teacher we're going to have to work around that as well.'

'You got much work to do tonight?'

Harry shrugged; he didn't really have all that much to do. Unlike Ron, he'd not left things to the last minute. 'Thought I might go over a few things, make sure we've got something organised for the first years. You need anything doing?'

Steph grimaced. 'I have a stack of reports as tall as I am.' She looked at him hopefully, 'Want to give me a hand?'

Harry shrugged. 'Why not? It's not like I've got anything better to do.'

Steph grinned at him before getting to her feet and dragging him up with her. Harry let her take his arm and steer him from the Hall. He was being honest; he really didn't have anything better to do. Ally had told him he was not to come home for at least three days unless there was an emergency. He was pretty sure boredom didn't count and he wanted to save up the missing his daughter excuse—true as it may be—for really dire circumstances.

Luna was the only other ADADA member in the offices when they arrived. She was kneeling on the floor in the middle of the sparring mat using her wand to spray paint a circle of runes on the floor. One of the oldest house elves Harry had ever seen was standing outside the ring of runes seemingly instructing her on what to do. The house elf was wearing no uniform Harry recognised but he'd come to realise that when it came to Luna some things were best left unasked. He and Stephanie simply offered a quiet greeting and went over to the desk they'd been time-sharing the year before.

Stephanie took the desk chair and Harry didn't bother to complain. Looking at the desk it was hard to see anyone but Stephanie had even used it. Most of the things Harry had brought to the desk initially had slowly and steadily been overcome by Stephanie's own belongings and paperwork as she became the one to frequent the work space.

Rather than help her with her paperwork—reports from the Ministry on possible targets for Voldemort—Harry set about removing the few things he'd left on the desk. There was no sense in asking her to move and he couldn't imagine he'd actually get much use out of the thing. He had a tendency to let his paperwork just lie about until someone else got tired of it or they needed something bad enough that they'd go looking for it and end up doing it for him.

Harry had just started the rather uncomfortable task of settling his things into Susan's old work space when Ron burst into the room looking thoroughly satisfied. If it weren't for the fact that Daphne followed him in looking annoyed, Harry might have started ribbing Ron good naturedly. Instead he moved forward into the middle room so he could get a better look at what it was Ron was so enthused about.

'Hermione is a genius!' Ron announced eliciting a small frown from Daphne but otherwise she didn't react. Ron, as usual, seemed oblivious. 'I know how we're going to save the castle and how we're going to make these new kids work.'

Harry had the feeling he was either going to love this idea Ron had or he was going to end up stressed to his eyeballs trying to catch first years up to a level that would leave them capable of defending themselves long enough for help to arrive or for them to escape.

'So here's what we need to do...'

...and Harry came to the conclusion that sleep would be a distant fond memory.


	7. Chapter 7

**a/n: **reviewers, you're the best! Hope you enjoy this one just as much.

**Chapter 7**

He got lost on his way down to breakfast and even though he'd sort of been expecting it to happen that didn't lessen the annoyance he felt having taken a wrong turn and having no idea how to correct it. He was lucky to run into Professor McGonagall when he did, it would have been far too embarrassing to turn up late to breakfast on his very first day.

She was deep in conversation with a student when they came around the corner of the unfamiliar corridor and almost walked right into him. McGonagall was dressed just as she'd been the night before at the Welcome Feast, although her expression was distinctly more ruffled. The red haired teenager beside her seemed to be the cause of her irritation, though as they stopped talking as soon as they saw him he had no idea what he could have said to create such a reaction.

The boy gave him a strange and oddly calculating look that left him feeling as though he were being evaluated. He smiled slightly, his relief at coming across someone familiar quenched slightly by the strange circumstances he'd stumbled upon.

'Good morning, Professor Vaughn,' Professor McGonagall greeted, her tone was friendly enough but she seemed somewhat cautious about it. 'Having trouble finding the Great Hall?'

Immediately set at ease by the sudden and familiar good humour behind her second set of words Vaughn found his smile less hesitant and more genuine. 'This happens a lot, then?'

Her expression said it all. 'Come, we'll walk you down.'

She swept around him and started to direct him back the way he'd come. He tried to pay close attention to every turn, every door but it was simply impossible to keep them all straight and when the boy touched McGonagall's elbow and purposefully steered her away from a door she was about to walk through and guided her instead through a hidden passage behind a tapestry he gave up entirely and focused the greater force of his attention on studying his odd companions.

'Peeves got an early start,' the boy said by way of explanation.

Vaughn may not have been at Hogwarts long but he had been here long enough to have one run in with the school's resident poltergeist. He'd have thought some sort of prank that had them taking a detour would have required a teacher to fix but McGonagall just sighed and followed through the tapestry.

'Do I need to inform the Headmaster?'

'Nah, Abby jinxed a few of the suits of armour down that corridor before she went to bed last night. The first years will get a bit of a surprise when they go to charms but it won't be the type Peeves was intending.'

At this, Vaughn definitely expected some sort of scalding; assuming, of course, that this Abby was a student, but McGonagall merely shook her head. 'Make sure it's cleared before Dumbledore finds out.'

Vaughn followed them down a staircase and jumped at the last moment to avoid falling through a trick step. Only his close study of the pair he was following had him noting the way they both automatically skipped over one of the lower stairs.

'So, Professor Vaughn,' the boy said, turning to walk backward so he could properly address him. 'You're American, then?'

'Canadian,' Vaughn corrected.

'What are you doing _here_, then?'

Vaughn chose not to take offense, assuming—correctly—that the boy was asking about his moving to another country and not meaning anything else. He also wasn't sure whether or not he should have to answer such a question but McGonagall seemed to be friendly enough with the student.

'I was looking for a change.'

That seemed to satisfy him for the moment, or maybe the kid just didn't really care all that much. They rounded a corner and Vaughn began to recognise where they were, another turn revealed the grand staircase that lead down to the entrance hall. Students were milling about around the doors, waiting for or greeting friends, though the majority of students were still likely struggling to get out of bed.

They parted ways with the young man whose name Vaughn still didn't know at the door to the Great Hall when he stopped to greet a younger girl who arrived at the doors as they did. McGonagall, too, left him shortly after. While he went directly to the staff table she made a slight detour along the Gryffindor table to deliver class timetables to those students already seated.

Breakfast was over long before Vaughn was ready, no matter how many years he'd been teaching he couldn't imagine the first day at a new school would ever be easy. As such, he was already waiting in his classroom long before the first bell even rang. When the first years started to trickle in—looking just as nervous as he felt—he was gazing at the blackboard going over his lesson plan for what felt like the hundredth time.

His first class whizzed by in a blur of introductions and study guides. By the time he'd had each of the students introduce themselves and laid out what they would cover over the coming term the hour was almost up. He barely had time to set a chapter for them to read before they were scrambling to collect up their parchment and quills, eager not to be late to their next class.

No amount of preparation could have prepared him for his next class.

His second class of the day was a double with a group of sixth years. He'd heard some of the teachers muttering about the changes to class scheduling over breakfast but he hadn't really thought much about it. This new structure saw that his next class consisted of a mix of sixth years from all four houses, something to do with integrating houses and dissolving hostility. Professor Flitwick had squeakily declared it was about damn time. McGonagall had countered that it was easy for him to say, _he_ hadn't had to organise the new schedules.

What this all boiled down to was that when he walked into his classroom a full five minutes early he was just in time to witness a sixth year girl land a heavy blow to the chest of another student, knocking him to the floor. Vaughn's wand was in hand in an instant, a spell to separate the two on his lips before his brain registered the rest of the scene he was witnessing.

The desks and chairs in the room had been pushed against one wall creating a large empty space in the middle of the room. The students were out of uniform and lined up against one wall watching the fight between the two students. A third student, the unnamed redhead he'd met earlier, was circling the pair, scrutinizing their movements.

Vaughn blinked.

'Don't rush it,' the girl told the boy on the floor, extending a hand to help him up. 'You'll get it eventually, Longbottom.'

Vaughn blinked again. He lowered his wand and tried not to gape at what he was seeing. His sixth years were training in unarmed combat. Looking closely it was easy to see that although the students were out of their Hogwarts uniform they were far from casually dressed as they might have been on a day off. Sturdy boots, flexible clothing, hair secured back to avoid accidentally obscuring vision. Vaughn would even go so far as to say that at least three of his students, including the redhead he'd met earlier and the blonde girl, were attired like soldiers. Looking closely, Vaughn was able to see that not only were both students wearing leather holsters to secure their wands within easy reach but they were also carrying knives.

'What in the name of Merlin is going on here?'

He didn't get the response he was looking for. Instead of cowering in the sudden presence of a teacher and hurrying to undo the mess they'd made of his classroom, the redhead moved toward him hand extended to shake while the blonde handled the tidy up of the classroom which seemed to involve just waving her wand about and the chairs moving back on their own.

'Ron Weasley,' the redhead introduced, taking his hand and shaking it despite Vaughn's obvious confusion. 'Sorry we weren't introduced this morning.'

'Daphne Greengrass,' the blonde introduced next, not bothering to offer her hand.

Vaughn nodded politely but whatever she said next was lost on him. He was staring at her chest. And not in any perverted way but his eyes had immediately been drawn to the large and angry wound that seemed to be weeping blood onto a crisp white bandage. She noticed his stare, no way could she have missed it, but she didn't acknowledge it. Vaughn desperately wanted to ask but respected her privacy on the matter.

By the time he looked up and away, missing the smirk Weasley shot Greengrass completely, the classroom was back to something that resembled order. But just because the classroom had been put to rights didn't mean that Vaughn could easily slide back into his planned lesson. In fact he must have stood at the front of the classroom sizing up his students for too long because Weasley turned in his front row seat and smirked at the entire class. It was Greengrass, however, that issued the instruction.

'Go,' she ordered. 'You know what you need to do; the ADADA's office hours are posted in your common rooms.'

So off balance was he, Vaughn didn't make a move to stop the class from leaving. The last one out the door pulled it shut and he was left standing at the front of an empty classroom gawking at Greengrass and Weasley as they stood from behind their tables and moved around to lean against the front of them. This put them on even ground with Vaughn and did nothing to alleviate his sudden lack of balance.

'Dumbledore never told us you were coming,' Weasley began, 'so we never got the chance to explain things before you turned up.'

'Explain things?' Vaughn's voice was void of emotion, a cold calm was washing over him and he stood a little taller. These were just kids, he could handle kids. He'd taught all kinds, those looking for attention, those treading that fine line between light and dark magic. Whatever these kids threw at him or tried to do, he could handle it.

'What do you know of last year's DADA classes?' Greengrass questioned. 'Did Dumbledore leave you with a plan of what we covered?'

Vaughn thought back on the small packet of parchment Professor Dumbledore had given him upon accepting the job. Inside there had been a list of spells and creatures that each year had covered but now that he thought about it, there hadn't been enough lesson plans to cover an entire years teaching. Dumbledore had simply explained that he had previously been unable to find a teacher to fill the position and had been forced to take on the task himself.

His face must have betrayed his thoughts because Weasley snorted. 'Last year we had one of the best DADA teachers we've ever had. She taught us everything—EVERYTHING—we needed to know to protect ourselves.'

'We covered, unarmed combat, armed combat, wizard duels, healing spells-'

'-muggle and magical-'

'-muggle and magical techniques,' Weasley conceded Greengrass' interruption.

'The only reason Dumbledore hired you is because he hopes you'll keep us under control and not let us do anything foolish.'

'You can't stop us,' Weasley informed him brightly. 'We've a war to win.'

'So we're going to handle things this year, do things the way they need to be done and not just the way Dumbledore thinks they should be done. We're not children, Professor Vaughn; we haven't the time to be children.'

He'd always heard the stories about Hogwarts, plenty of people had laughingly told him he wouldn't know what hit him. Plenty of people had also told him there was a war on and he'd be crazy to leave Canada to move to a country smack in the middle of a war. He'd given them his solemn look and explained that if he could teach even one student to defend themselves long enough for help to arrive then he would be happy, he'd have accomplished something.

No one had told him about this. No one had warned him that the students of Hogwarts had been so strongly affected by the war.

'McGonagall will have some lesson plans for you tomorrow; the ADADA will handle the rest.'

They were gone in a blink and Vaughn found himself with a double lesson with nothing to do. He was angry, ashamed at letting two teenagers get the best of him. Angry. Shaking himself, he stalked from the classroom and, in his anger, actually managed to go directly to the staffroom without any inconvenient wring turns.

The room wasn't empty like he'd expected it to be, a girl with bushy brown hair was sitting at the table with a good section of the library spread on the table before her. Each book was open to a section on—he learned forward—wards. The girl, a student if the uniform was any actual judge, was pouring over the books while Snape peered over her shoulder and Filch sat scowling opposite.

They were deep in a discussion about dungeons and ancient wards and only looked up at him when he took a seat at the table. The girl gave him a big smile and snapped one of her books shut. She was the first person to look happy to see him and it went a little way toward cheering him and not regretting his impulsive decision to move halfway across the world.

'Professor Vaughn,' she greeted. 'I'm Hermione Granger, sixth year Gryffindor, Ron says you're Canadian. I'd love to ask you some questions about the French influence on the native magic and the reverse influence of the native cultures on the French.'

Once again, Vaughn found himself completely taken aback by a Hogwarts student. Before he could respond, however, Snape intervened. Probably a good thing as Vaughn couldn't have answered her question. History of Magic and all that was never something he'd been very good at. He may have gone to a magical school in Quebec but his French was atrocious, as bad as his history.

'Granger, perhaps we could focus on silencing these wards and not your ever growing desire to know everything.'

Vaughn thought that was a mite unnecessary but a strange howling laugh echoed through the room and possible the entire castle and Hermione Granger winced.

She couldn't hold back a last word, though. 'We'll talk.'

Thoroughly confused, still slightly angry and definitely baffled, Vaughn passed the rest of the time before lunch watching the unlikely trio trying to untangle some mystery surrounding the Hogwarts wards. Occasionally, he would exchange words with other staff members who wandered through. Not one found the presence of a student something to question, most of them actually held brief friendly conversations with Miss Granger.

It was ten minutes before the lunch bell was due to ring when a small feathery owl exploded into existence above the table, malting fake feathers over the books. Everyone in the room froze for an instant before leaping into action. Snape snatched the furry toy from the air and snarled at the message attached to its small claw. Granger began hurriedly closing all of the books and stuffing them into a bag that must have been magically expanded to even fit two of them.

'Muggle school under attack. Go!'

And Vaughn was left sitting alone in the staffroom wondering what in the name of Merlin had just happened.


	8. Chapter 8

**a/n: WARNING! This chapter is quite the tear jerker, horrific in places in implication and a bit chaotic. You've been warned. Also thanks for all the reviews and i'm so sorry it took so, so very long to update this was really hard to write.**

**Chapter 8**

Dark and stormy skies would forever be her favourite. She would look at the endless grey, the sharp crack of thunder and the accompanying flashes of lightning and breathe easier.

Never again would she enjoy a cloudless blue sky.

Through some twist of adrenalin Daphne was the first to arrive. In the brief moment she was able to look around she felt her stomach lurch and immediately regretted the private lunch she'd had with Ginny. Death was everywhere. What was, just minutes ago, a sunny playground full of colour and laughter was now a chaotic splash of harsh spells and splattered blood.

She refused to acknowledge what she could see out of the corner of her eye. Instead she focused on the Death Eaters and any children or their teachers that she had a hope of helping. Perhaps then she would be able to turn and look at the tragedy that had been created on a climbing frame.

Then she was moving, no more time to think or feel, only to react. It had taken less time than it probably should have to hone her instincts but they served her well. She dove between a terrified teacher and a young Death Eater, taking the brunt of a concussive spell and tearing open what little healing she'd managed to achieve on her chest when she pulled off the manoeuvre. The damn thing would never heal at this rate.

A redhead flashed by too quickly for her to identify which Weasley was on scene with her and she didn't have the time to turn and look. The teacher behind her was whimpering, acting as a shield for three children and begging Daphne to save them. She focused all of her attention on the Death Eater, couldn't think about the teacher or the kids.

She flicked her wrist sharply and shot one of Hermione's ancient discoveries at the Death Eater, though they weren't sure quite what it was supposed to do, now seemed as good a time as any to test out why something would be on a list of the deadliest of spells.

She wasn't at all prepared for the result. She had put all of her anger and pain behind the spell and the brilliant golden light had pierced straight through the Death Eaters flimsy shield and punched a hole the size of a galleon clean through the Death Eater's chest before it seemed to explode. She'd be cleaning minute traces of heart out of her hair for weeks.

The whimpering behind her was suddenly cut off and something heavy and wet slammed into her back forcing her to the ground. Her wrist snapped on impact, her thumb was pushed back at an uncomfortable angle and her shoulder was wrenched out of its socket. She crumpled and her face slammed into the pavement. Her cheek bone shattered and she screamed out but the weight on her back didn't lift.

She couldn't breathe, spots filled her vision. The last thing she heard before everything went black was a deep angry growl.

BREAK

Someone screamed but he didn't hear it, he was only aware of the way students were leaping out of his way in alarm. He supposed the look on his face would have been enough to create the effect on an ordinary day. Today wasn't any kind of ordinary. He was dripping in salt water, blood plastered his hair to his forehead and he was leaving flesh filled footprints down the corridor. He didn't give a fuck.

His jeans were torn where a Death Eater had attacked him with a metal pipe he'd pulled from some climbing equipment. He supposed there must be some of his own blood running down his leg and maybe it even hurt a bit but other things hurt more. Not the four broken fingers, though, he barely felt _them_. He couldn't feel any physical pain at the moment. He had places to be.

He blasted the door off its hinges rather than knock and wait for someone to tell him it was alright to enter. The class of fourth years shrieked in alarm but he barely registered the uncomfortable sound. He ignored the alarmed words of the new DADA professor and instead scanned the class looking for one face. She was smart like her sister, enough to know that something terrible had happened, enough to be pushing to her feet before he'd even located her.

His knees threatened to buckle but he stood strong in the face of her tears. She didn't scream, didn't make any noise but for the sound of his name in a broken whisper as she reached his side and clasped his injured hand in both of hers.

'Ron?'

The sob that tore from his throat was more of an animalistic howl but it broke his composure and he crumpled to the floor in the middle of a class of terrified fourth years, Astoria Greengrass' arms wrapped around him.

**BREAK**

It had never occurred to her that if anything ever happened to Daphne she would feel devastation. It never occurred to her that she could feel anything at all for Daphne but she'd seen Ron come undone. He'd fallen to pieces the moment he felt safe enough to do so and now he was broken. So maybe she wasn't mourning Daphne, maybe she was mourning Ron.

He moved with detached and slow movements, shadowed everywhere by an ADADA member, whether they were there to support Ron or protect any student who may try to approach him she wasn't sure. She was sure that she had never imagined that Ron had actually felt so much for the annoying, pureblood blonde Slytherin that had waltzed into Ron's life like she owned it. She'd always assumed it was a fling, that it was something so typical of teenagers.

But she felt Ron's complete and utter despair as if it were a heavy blow of reality. Ron actually loved Daphne, he hurt when she hurt, he simply broke when she-

But she wouldn't think of it like that because now wasn't the time to be thinking about how wrong she'd been about Ron's whole relationship with Daphne, how wrong she'd been about Daphne herself. So she took her watch, spent the day by his side, shadowing his every step as he went to classes he'd never remember and ate lunch where everything tasted like ash and he couldn't even say who he'd sat with. She watched over him like the friend she should have been from the beginning.

**BREAK**

Blood.

Sex.

Tears.

Violence.

Nightmares.

Nothing but pain and sorrow and memories.

He made it rain. Angry thick grey clouds that hung heavy over the castle obscuring the sun and the blue.

He fucking hated blue skies.

Someone was sitting next to him, watching him or the others, he wasn't sure.

Fuck, he didn't even know what day it was. Wednesday? Saturday? Was it even still September? Or had they moved into October?

Caught a flash of blonde hair and his heart rose but it was the scent of chocolate and honey that filled his nose as someone lifted his arm and slid up against him. Little sister he'd adopted. He wouldn't be failing her.

Not like...not like...

He _wouldn't_ fail her.

**BREAK**

They'd lost people before, some had died others had gone missing. This felt different, with Susan there'd been a body and protocols. There'd been sadness but they'd known what to do. When Moody had disappeared, they'd searched high and low for him until finally he'd managed to get in touch and tell them he was alive. He wasn't well but Merlin was he still kicking. People from the Ministry had lost their lives and gone missing, people had been killed, injured, destroyed physically and mentally.

But the ADADA and the Order of the Phoenix—new and old—had never experienced anything like this.

Death suspended. Pain and horror stretching out like some sick show for the world to see. If he'd been in a muggle hospital there'd be machines and beeping and he could watch as the little screen showed him a decline in vital signs as the little electrical impulses that confirmed life slowly faded away.

But the wizarding world was different. It was colder and harsher and terrifying in every way. The light was dark and sometimes things that had seemed so very dark could shine the brightest light.

There were no machines here. No bed for her to lie on, no chair for him to sit in as he sat watch. This wasn't even a hospital. It was a sadistic display that people came and studied, that the brightest of witches and wizards in the world came to look at.

Some cried, those ones he let stay as long as they liked, for as long as they could. The ones that looked like they were attacking an extremely difficult magical theory equation, they stayed for their allotted time but no more.

The ones that were fascinated, that showed a desire to repeat what had happened, he cursed them and wiped their memories and made sure they could never see her again.

She wasn't a spectacle that should be displayed like some horrifying art display. She wasn't a ghost or a magical picture that they could move around and manipulate to finally crack the problem.

He wasn't sure what she was.

But he stayed by her side in the shape of a huge black dog and he protected her. Others came and went; they traded places and brought food. Sometimes they fought, other times they cried.

But she was watched and they waited. They mourned and they hoped.

And they never turned away from her. They stared Death and Life in the face every day and they fought on.

She'd want them to.

**BREAK**

Breakfast in the Great Hall. It looked the same as it had on any other morning for as long as he'd been at Hogwarts; he supposed if he'd asked McGonagall or Snape could have told him if it matched how they remembered it. Back when they were kids and they sat in their houses enjoying the food the house elves provided.

The changes were small but if you knew what to look for they were there. The middle of the Gryffindor table was where the ADADA sat, all the members from all of the four houses, when they came and went, this was where they sat. Then a space. A ring around them that separated them from everyone else.

The other houses were learning to mingle, not just girlfriends or boyfriends sneaking across from other houses. Dean Thomas had wandered across to another house table just because they'd had a different flavour of jam. He'd stayed to chat up the pretty brunette he'd chanced to sit down by.

The Great Hall looked the same but changes were being made. The war was pressing down on them and they were finally sitting up and taking notice. The ADADA office hours were booked up by the end of breakfast, DADA classes were run with a scary efficiency that occurred only because students were putting everything they had into their studies.

Harry had overheard Flitwick expressing his sadness that while the marks he was giving had never been so high he wished for the days when he could fail a student safe in the knowledge that if they didn't make it through NEWTS they'd have other options and a home to go back to.

McGonagall and Snape were all but running the school now, Dumbledore, if he noticed, was making no move to change it. He locked himself away in his office and worked through nights. For once Harry was happy with the headmaster, he wasn't hiding away to avoid confronting reality, he was hiding away studying everything he had and could get regarding Voldemort.

But it was time for another change. A big one. And so it was that in the middle of October, six weeks after the attack on the Muggle School, Harry stood up in the middle of breakfast and addressed Ron directly.

'Run the drill.'


	9. Chapter 9

**a/n: **well it has certainly been way too long since i last updated but finally i come bearing a small chapter. Thanks so very much for all of the fantastic reviews i hope you like this one.

**Chapter 9**

She'd once been a very heavy sleeper, relying on an alarm spell that delivered a shock to her if she slept through her alarm clock. A year fighting Death Eaters had put her constantly on guard and she'd learned to get as much rest as she needed while still being aware enough of her surroundings to not get dead. Basically, this all boiled down to the fact that rather than getting spelled in her sleep she actually woke to the sound of McGonagall's magically magnified voice and was therefore awake enough to throw up a shield charm.

The unexpected defence knocked her attacker back through the curtains surrounding her bed and onto the cold stone floor where he was struck with three different stunners. Abby stuck her head through the gap in her curtains and nodded in satisfaction; she may not particularly like her roommates but they certainly got the job done.

'_...attack! All students are to report to their designated response areas! Hogwarts is under...'_

'You heard the woman!' Abby barked, 'Move!'

She tugged the curtains aside and launched from her bed in the direction of the clothes she'd left crumpled on top of her trunk. Getting dressed one handed while keeping her wand within easy reach was a little difficult but she had a much easier job than the others. She could be proud though, not one of her girls was panicking, they were just hurrying into pants and shoes, jackets pulled over pyjamas and hair hastily tied up and out of the way.

They were ready to move in two minutes.

The atmosphere on the stairs and in the common room was heavy with nervous energy and the fear that had been lacking from her own dorm. First years were huddled in one corner waiting to be issued with instructions while other students ran down the stairs and darted out of the common room in twos or threes, wands held at the ready. Abby felt a little proud of her house as she cut through the stream of exiting students to meet up with the prefects keeping the first years out of the way.

The sound of an explosion tore through the low buzz of fear and nerves and the castle shook beneath their feet. Distant screams echoed down to them and more explosions followed. Abby paid them no mind, her attention focused solely on the first years and their protectors. The plan the ADADA had drawn up had prefects dividing their first years up and safely leading them through the castle to designated safe zones. From what Abby could see they hadn't yet moved because they didn't want to get crushed in the chaotic exit.

'What are you waiting for? Move!'

Another explosion sounded from overhead and she instinctively ducked as those still in the common room were showered with dust from a ceiling that was beginning to look less and less stable. It spurned the prefects into action, though, and they moved for the door one group at a time. When she was left alone in the common room Abby turned and darted up the boy's staircase, stopping to check that every room was clear. She repeated the process with the girl's dormitory, from the looks of it her room had been the only one attacked.

She moved into the room and knelt beside the stunned figure, pushing the back the hood to reveal a young wizard, fresh out of his teens and the Auror academy. She poked him with her wand to remove the stunner and he sat up with a wince. She grabbed his hand and helped him to his feet. He was no good to them if a few stunners could take him out so quickly.

'That was pathetic,' she informed him, feeling no need to sugar-coat it.

He glared at her, rubbing his shoulder where he'd landed funny. 'Sympathy never hurts, Abigail.'

She rolled her eyes and offered him a pat on his sore shoulder, pretending not to realise it hurt when he winced. 'Go attack someone else, I have places to be.'

'I have no idea what my brother sees in you.'

Abby winced, not really wanting to be reminded of _that_ irritation while she had a job to do. 'Just go, would you?'

With a mocking wave he vanished, no doubt to turn up in some other attack position to spring some trap on another group of unsuspecting third years. For a brief moment Abby wished she was in that group, it was always fun going toe to toe with Adrian when he had his whole head in the game.

But she had her own places to be. According to the plan once checking the dorm she was to report to the ADADA offices for further instruction. There was nothing in the plan about which way to get there and if she should have to stop along the way and beat the crap out of someone, then all the better.

She'd only made it down one corridor before she was required to intervene. One of the groups of first years had been intercepted and the prefect was already down for the count. Whatever spell had been used to take her out looked like it had been pretty painful. She was slumped against the wall with both legs bent at unnatural angles and a head wound that looked to be little more than a large bump. The first years were trying, Abby would give them that, but they'd only had just shy of two months proper instruction and it hadn't been as intense as Ally had put her classes through the year before.

Abby blasted one of the hooded figures with an elemental spell that sent him careening down the hallway, almost taking the first year he'd been holding with him. She didn't look to see if the girl was okay because another hooded figure had two unconscious first years draped over his shoulders and was reaching for his wand and what she assumed was a portkey. Abby hesitated, just long enough for a wink to make itself known from under the hood and then he was gone, taking the first years along with him.

She really hoped the other first year hadn't been paying close enough attention to notice her hesitation was intentional.

She needn't have worried, when she turned around ready to take on the "Death Eater" she'd given the chance to recover he was gone and the first year was curled up in the foetal position at the feet of a suit of armour. With her arms wrapped around her head it was unlikely she'd seen anything of interest.

Ignoring the first year, Abby crouched beside the unconscious prefect and checked to make sure she wasn't hurt too badly. The rules had been a little fuzzy when it came to the sort of spells their attackers could use, nothing deadly but the prefect had hit the wall pretty hard by the looks of things. Abby couldn't imagine Dumbledore would be pleased if a student died while they were conducting an unauthorised drill. She couldn't say Madam Pomfrey would be all too thrilled either.

Thankfully, though her head was bleeding and her limbs were crumpled into an unnatural position, the prefects breathing was even and it looked as though she'd be fine after a quick trip to the hospital wing. Abby summoned a house elf to deal with her casualty and turned her attention to the terrified first year.

Crouching beside the girl she tried to think of something soothing to say. When that failed, she tapped the girl on the shoulder, ignoring the way she contracted in fear into an even tighter ball.

'Not that I have anything against letting you stay here curled up in a ball but you might want to get a move on before another Death Eater finds you.' With those lovely words of comfort, Abby stood and rapped her knuckles sharply against the breastplate of the suit of armour. The helmet turned to look at her without so much as a squeak and she silently thanked Filch for his obsessive cleaning. 'Take her to the Ravenclaw evacuation point.'

The helmet nodded, bent at the knees and scooped the girl up, tucking her under his arm as though she were a sack of flour. The girl cried out in protest at being unceremoniously picked up by an empty suit of armour but it didn't give her much chance to fight. It simply started a steady march down the corridor. With a snort of amusement, Abby darted in the opposite direction and slid sideways through the nearest concealed passageway.

It wasn't the brightest lit passageway in Hogwarts and it might not have been her wisest choice but it cut five minutes off her travel time. That seemed like less and less of a good thing when half way down the twisted stone passage, an explosion tore through the floor above, showering her with spiders, dust and flakes of stone where the roof hadn't quite held.

'Bloody, Weasley's,' she muttered, wiping her eyes clear and squinting down the now even darker passage. She contemplating lighting her wand but decided she'd rather have her hands free.

She didn't run into any trouble until she'd made it almost the entire way up to the ADADA offices. It was then, when she was just one flight of stairs away, that she was abruptly tackled to the ground. She let out a startled yelp but the weight of a body pressing her down meant she couldn't do much about it. The volley of spells that suddenly flew overhead made her just slightly glad someone had knocked all of the air out of the lungs.

'Sorry,' a voice murmured into her ear. The weight shifted and suddenly her rescuer was rolling free and aiming spells back down the corridor.

For the first time Abby was able to breathe and get a good look at her assailant. For a moment she thought she must have hit her head on the way down. She felt around for any suspicious lumps or signs that her brains had been mildly scrambled. Coming up empty she tried rubbing her eyes. That didn't work. The pyjama clad figure duelling with two "Death Eaters" still looked like Draco Malfoy.

Not one to let surprise get in the way of a good fight, Abby shot to her feet and drew the attention of one of the "Death Eaters". Within moments both were unconscious and she was left standing in an empty hallway with a slightly out of breath Slytherin who up until a moment ago she thought would have happily handed her over to a group of Death Eaters. She eyed him speculatively, taking in the black silk pyjama pants, the snug white t-shirt and the...dragon hide combat boots?

'What?' he demanded when her look went on a little too long. She didn't respond right away so he turned his attention to unmasking their attackers. He'd only taken the first mask off when he realised what was going on. 'This is a _test_?' he complained. 'I got dragged out of bed for one of Potter's tests?'

Abby looked down at the unmasked figure and snorted. 'Percy,' she laughed, nudging his still frame with her foot. 'Bet you a galleon the other is Penelope Clearwater.'

Malfoy sighed with annoyance. 'I'm going back to bed.'

'Nice PJs!' she called after him, laughing when he flipped her off over his shoulder. She continued on her path down the corridor, encountering no other trouble.

Inside the ADADA offices, Hermione looked desperately frazzled. Knowing that this was a test didn't appear to relax her any. She opened her mouth to ask for instructions but she was cut off by a massive explosion from one of the lower floors. The floor shook, the glass in the windows cracked, filling with spider web like patterns. The floor beneath her feet rumbled and her eyes widened in alarm, meeting the equally concerned gaze of Hermione.

'Uh oh.'


	10. Chapter 10

**a/n: **this chapter is for QuietLion because she's had a tough week. Thanks for all the great reviews and i'm so sorry that there's been such a wait between updtaes. Hope you enjoy!

**Chapter 10**

Stephanie couldn't have said what flavour ice cream she was eating, she couldn't have even said how many bowls she'd been through, she just kept eating what the house elves put before her. Every time she closed her eyes she saw Daphne trapped in a shimmering blob of shield magic constantly replaying the last moments of her attack. Just when things were over, when the blood had finally stopped and Daphne lay still, there was a flicker and the process rewound and started all over again.

She didn't even want to think about how many times Daphne had died and come back to life.

No matter how many times she saw it she still wanted to throw up. She couldn't imagine how Ron had managed to visit her every night for the last five weeks without completely falling apart. Although, looking at him across the table, Stephanie wasn't so sure he hadn't fallen apart. He was a shell of his old self, he fought, attended classes, trained for Quidditch but he didn't engage, not really. About the only time Ron seemed to be functioning on a level remotely like he used to was when he and Stephanie were immersed in their work or when Astoria was begging him to train her so she could fight like her big sister.

They were sitting in silence, both lost in their own horrific thoughts when there was an explosion overhead and McGonagall's magically modified voice boomed through the castle. Both of them shot their eyes upward as though they could see through the ceiling to the floor above. For a moment the kitchen was still, nobody moved as the castle shook above them. And then Ron was catapulting out of the kitchen with a feral look on his face that Stephanie really hoped was about finally getting to see his plan in action and not because he was about to unleash something terrible on some innocent people.

With a shout of thanks over her shoulder, Stephanie took off after him, catching up two corridors away where the first group of Ravenclaw students were trying to evacuate passed several battling Death Eaters. Like Ron, Stephanie dove head first into the fight; tossing up a shield charm in front of a seventh year and smacking back a spell intended to incapacitate a fourth year. Sparing a glance at Ron, Stephanie was glad to see that he looked quite happy with this turn of events.

She ducked beneath the reaching arm of a Death Eater and shot a spell directly into his stomach. The fake Death Eater made a very unattractive squelching yelp before crumpling to the floor and clutching his stomach.

She felt only slightly bad about it. Some part of her felt it was only fair that this drill work both ways. Some of the people who had been drafted for the role of Death Eater hadn't been in any real fighting; it would be good for them to get a taste of what it means to really fight. And between the two of them, she and Ron certainly gave them some experience. Stephanie held back only her deadlier spells and she could tell from the pained cries echoing from Ron's attackers that he was doing the same.

Once the flow of students from Ravenclaw had disappeared, they brought the fight to a swift end, knocking the five Death Eaters still standing unconscious with a sweeping sleep spell before tying them up and taking off down the corridor and toward the Entrance Hall. The ceiling above them shook violently and dust rained down on them.

'What the hell was that?' Stephanie coughed, as far as she knew nobody was supposed to be wielding spells with the power to shake the castle.

'The twins,' Ron coughed in response. 'They got together with Peeves this afternoon and rigged up a few pranks.'

Stephanie didn't appreciate the way Ron hesitated over that last word like he hadn't asked and was perhaps regretting not getting a better and more detailed description of what his brothers had planned.

They didn't find any more Death Eaters until they reached the Entrance Hall and then Steph couldn't help but let out an impressed whistle. It was chaos. Bodies everywhere, random bits of armour, what looked to be a shoe was hanging from the corner of a crooked painting. Smoke was rising from the charred remains of a bench and the front doors were nothing but splinters.

A group of Ron's best trained fighters were battling it out with a group of Death Eaters amidst the mess. The mix of fifth, sixth and seventh years had been specifically chosen to defend the entrance hall and given the fact that eight out of the ten were still standing Stephanie felt pretty secure in their choice of fighters. Just as they stepped up to the edge of the scene, eyes darting back and forth for a way into the fight that wouldn't get someone hurt, a spell that had missed its target shot over head and shattered the chandelier above them. Glass exploded over the scene, candles and hot wax dripping down on those fighting. A large shard of glass imbedded in Stephanie's right arm and she swore at the sudden and sharp pain, before wrenching it free. She tied it off with a bandage Ron had her, retrieved form who knew where.

With a growl of annoyance she launched into the fight, expertly stepping between a fifth year and her opponent. The fifth year sagged as the fight moved away from her but Stephanie didn't have time to reprimand her for slacking off because as she ducked under one of her attacker's spells another Death Eater caught the fifth year in the side with a stunner.

To her left, Ron was battling with two Death Eaters, mouth spread in a feral smile as he tore into them with some truly spectacular – if nasty – spell work. A spell from behind took out Stephanie's Death Eater and when he crumpled to the floor, Stephanie was treated to a smug smile from a seventh year. She rolled her eyes at him, unimpressed and darted left to intercept one of Ron's attackers.

Another explosion from above had the castle shaking and showering those in the Entrance hall in dust and debris. Blinking her eyes clear, Stephanie didn't see the spell coming her way until it was too late. The sickly yellow light slammed into her and knocked her back several feet. She collided with the doors to the Great Hall, forcing them open under her weight before sliding to a rest just inside on the stone floor.

For a moment she just laid there, every bone in her body screaming in protest. A few gentle movements showed her she hadn't done too much damage, she'd dislocated her shoulder when she'd hit the doors and she was pretty sure the spots she was seeing were a good sign she had some sort of head injury. With achingly slow movements that allowed plenty of time for someone to come and finish her off, Stephanie reached up to feel her head. Her hand came away slick with blood from a very tender spot on the back of her head. Dizziness made the room around her spin and for a moment everything went black.

The next time she managed to open her eyes someone was standing over her, she reached for her wand before she recognised the person leaning over her. The sound of fighting continued out in the Entrance Hall but if she was blacking out she wouldn't be rejoining the chaos any time soon.

'Hospital wing, I think,' Filch rasped, pressing her back to the floor with a surprisingly gentle nudge. He motioned to someone behind her and then the familiar big eyes of a house elf were peering down at her. 'Take her to Madam Pomfrey.'

Stephanie lost focus for a moment and when she could again make sense of how to work her eyelids she was in the hospital wing being looked over by Madam Pomfrey. She managed a heavily pained "ow" before she blacked out.

* * *

By a rather unlucky series of events when the drill at Hogwarts went down Emmy was in the middle of the world's most awkward student teacher interview. Honestly, all she'd wanted was a late night snack to help her get through the torturous amount of study journals she'd been putting off checking over. She'd made it down just two floors when she literally bumped into the new DADA professor who looked to be taking a mid night stroll.

Once she'd finished apologising for nearly breaking his nose – and gotten over the fact that he was wearing a blue tartan dressing gown - she got around to asking him what in the name of Merlin he thought he was doing wandering around the castle in the middle of the night. It didn't at all occur to her that as the student in this duo she was the one that should have been on the receiving end of this question, not asking it. At least it didn't until his face hardened and she got a brief look at the kind of fighter he could be before the softened teacher took over.

'I'm allowed to be walking, you on the other hand, Miss...'

'James, Emmy James,' she supplied helpfully, not a hint of remorse for being found out and about after curfew.

'You should be in bed.'

Briefly, Emmy thought about just turning around and going back up to the ADADA office, the one they used for the other students, but where was the fun in that? Instead, she made a sweeping gesture with her arm indicating the way to the kitchen. 'Care to join me for a late night snack?'

Not quite sure what to make of the invitation when he'd been trying to tell her off, it was a moment before he replied. 'Alright.' His resignation made her smile, eventually she figured Professor Vaughn would understand that the ADADA and the other professors ran the school, Dumbledore was just their figurehead.

They walked in silence for a few metres before Vaughn broke it with a question. Emmy kept her satisfied smile to herself.

'How did the ADADA get started?' he asked. 'You're not just another club, are you?'

'How so?' amused, she glanced across at him as she led him behind a tapestry and down a rickety set of stairs that would cut their journey time in half.

'I've taught in quite a few schools and I've never come across a Defence Against the Dark Arts study group that trains other students and offers tutoring and _gives_ homework.'

Emmy actually laughed at that. 'We don't give homework, that's left over from when Ally was teaching.'

As they walked she told him all about Ally's teaching style, how she'd left the bookwork and catch up to them asking only to see the written evidence of their practice. She had just gotten to explaining how they had been learning to fight physically in classes when there was a loud boom and the floor shook. Emmy stayed his reaching hand before he could get a good grip on his wand.

'You're about to see how well she trained us all.'

'What -' but he was cut off by McGonagall's magically enhanced voice.

Emmy grinned wickedly and released his arm. 'This should be fun.' And she took off running toward the sound of the first explosion, not surprised when he ran after her.

One floor down and two corridors over the outside wall had been blasted inward, a nice hole affording a group of thirteen Death Eaters the opening they needed to get into the castle. As she sprinted toward the invading force, Emmy couldn't help admiring the realism Harry had sought to create. Vaulting over a chunk of masonry she tackled the last Death Eater just as she was climbing in through the hole. The unexpected physical attack worked in her favour and she managed to fire off a very powerful, ancient stunner as they fell. By the time they collided with the floor, the Death Eater was down and out.

Emmy leapt to her feet and jabbed her wand in the direction of two Death Eaters making for the stairs, immediately ropes wrapped around their legs, dragging them to a sudden stop. Their momentum carried both head first down the stairs and Emmy winced, barely containing the urge to apologize. Whoever was under those masks was not going to be happy with her when they woke.

Spinning, Emmy put any more apologetic thoughts to the back of her mind and engaged another Death Eater. This one put up a good fight and they traded spells back and forth for what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than three minutes. Something purple struck her in the shoulder and she spun away from her opponent. Her shoulder numb from the spell she flung up a shield charm to protect her back and fired four rapid spells at the back of a Death Eater battling with Vaughn.

In the blink of an eye she was back and facing off with her own attacker. The rest of the invading Death Eaters were nowhere in sight but she would worry about that later. She ducked under a spell and fired one back, not at the Death Eater but at the lantern behind him. Glass and bits of hot wax exploded outward, spilling all over the Death Eaters back and eliciting a cry of surprise and pain. Using the distraction to her advantage, Emmy blasted the Death Eater smack in the face with a sleep spell. Down the cloaked figure went and moment later he was snoring.

Somewhere deep in the castle something exploded and the floor beneath her gave an unhappy rumble. She wondered how long it had been since the Hogwarts castle had seen battle. She really hoped there was some good foundations and magic keeping the place standing.

And then she took off down the stairs, following after Vaughn as he chased yet another Death Eater, trying to escape further into the castle. She caught up with them in time to knock him out of the path of a spell that had come not from the Death Eater ahead but from a passageway behind an apparently solid wall that the new professor hadn't even known was there.

Rolling free, Emmy left Vaughn to continue after the first Death Eater while she pursued the new one back through the passageway. She caught up with him when they burst out of a tapestry at the top of the grand staircase leading down to the Entrance Hall. She narrowed her eyes and slapped a painful blasting hex at the Death Eaters back but the spell bounced harmlessly off a shield charm that had never been erected. Narrowing her eyes, Emmy studied the figure ahead of her. She'd recognise that walk and those shoulders anywhere.

Before she had a chance to use this information to her advantage, Death Eater Fred launched something that looked like a WWW joke product down the stairs. It was just plain unlucky that it fell into the path of a spell gone awry from the fight on the ground floor.

Emmy had a moment to take in the terrified wide eyes behind the Death Eater mask before Fred was tackling her to the ground covering her with his body and his head with his arms. The explosion that followed was so big that it was felt all through the castle, the windows exploded outward, fragments of marbled embedded in paintings along the walls and screams erupted from all directions. A warmth of fire washed over Emmy but she daren't move. Smoke filled the room and a white hot flash temporarily blinded everyone in the vicinity of the explosion.

When the dust eventually settled and the ringing in her ears had settled to a dull throbbing beat, Fred raised his head and offered her a sheepish smile. 'How dead do you think I am?'

'I could kill you.'

Turning her head, Emmy had to laugh. Looking down at them, covered in smoke and dust with his shirt burnt to ribbons, Draco Malfoy certainly looked mad enough to do some damage. His eyebrows were blackened and his eyes narrowed, still Emmy thought she should take a moment to admire Andromeda's hard work. 'Nice abs,' Emmy grinned, allowing the Slytherin to reach down and help them both up.

'You have some serious explaining to do,' Emmy agreed when she got a good look at the destruction.

'I agree,' Albus Dumbledore said with icy calm, appearing behind them with no warning.

The look on his face made it quite clear that death would be preferable.


	11. Chapter 11

**a/n: I** know! An update from me is quite shocking. To all the wonderful people who have continued to review despite these long waits, many thanks! This chapter did not turn out at all as i was expecting but i think that worked out quite nicely. Please let me know what you think.

**Chapter 11**

Dumbledore was furious; Ron didn't see how this was any different from any other day, so he wasn't quite sure what all the fuss was about. In fact if Dumbledore could see the Great Hall he was currently addressing and not just the tiny point on Harry's chin he was directing all his anger at he may have deflated like a leaky balloon.

All of the students who hadn't wound up in the Hospital Wing were gathered in the hall, scattered around the tables where the tables were still intact, and sitting on the table top when the benches were full. They were half dressed, yawning and more than half of them were bruised and scratched. They weren't angry; they certainly weren't chastened by Dumbledore's tirade. If anything they looked buoyed by the experience. Dumbledore's anger was just going in one ear and out the other as they watched – some with amusement – as he laid into Harry.

From his position on one of the Hufflepuff benches (this one far from where it had started the evening, had been righted by Filch) squished between Emmy and Abby he had an excellent view of the entire hall, professors, students, the members of the Order and ADADA associates who had been masquerading as Death Eaters, all of the people witnessing Dumbledore essentially making a fool of himself.

He felt bad for the old headmaster, once he would have looked on him with awe, seeing a hero who had defeated a dark wizard and who had once been the only wizard rumoured to frighten Lord Voldemort. Now he was seeing a tired and scared old man and his audience was seeing it too. With his hand shrivelled and deadened and a pale quality to his skin he looked frail. Frailty wasn't something they could afford in a leader of this war, they needed someone strong, someone young who could stand up and fight, who wasn't afraid to do what was necessary.

It may not have been the intention of this drill to unseat Dumbledore, but it was in every face in the hall, the knowledge that Dumbledore couldn't lead them though this war, that burden would fall to Harry now. Unlike Dumbledore, though, Harry would never have to face this fight alone. Where Dumbledore had played things close to his chest, revealing only what he felt was absolutely necessary to as few people as possible. It wasn't his intention but people around Dumbledore assumed he didn't trust them.

Harry was different. He surrounded himself with people he trusted, gave them important roles to play and made sure they understood how it was that their jobs, their information, their role in this war, played into the bigger picture. It showed in the way Harry fought side by side with Ally, how he was seen to be planning with Ron and the rest of the ADADA. He'd won many over when he'd started asking Mad- Eye for advice.

They felt included, like they were doing something to help. It meant more to these students, Ron could see, to be included and allowed to learn to protect themselves than it did for them to be coddled and protected by Dumbledore.

Coddled was a feeling he was becoming uncomfortably familiar with. He hadn't been truly alone since that day a week after Daphne was attacked when he'd almost blown up his dormitory. He'd been shadowed by Stephanie, accosted by Astoria and at one point actually thumped upside the head by Emmy. He'd actually walked out of the bathroom one morning, towel wrapped around his waist and still dripping water to find Abby lounging on the bench by the window reading a magazine. She'd apparently been wholly oblivious to the other boys trying to use the bathroom and the way they'd been skirting nervously around her.

He shifted on the Hufflepuff tabletop accidently on purpose elbowing Abby in the ribs. She wrinkled her nose at him and he smirked. He was wondering how long Dumbledore would continue his tirade and whether or not he could sneak away for an early breakfast when he caught the sound of laughter. It was a sound he was becoming far too familiar with and he stilled, tuning out Dumbledore so he could hear beyond the angry words.

There it was again. Laughter and if he wasn't mistaken it was actually getting...closer?

'Fuck.' Ron launched off the table, startling everyone. 'Abby, Emmy, with me.'

He ran as fast as he could through the hall, jumping over benches and running across tabletops. He reached the last row of Death Eater wannabes just as Tonks dove across the table, tackling his father clear of a sickly yellow spell. Ron leapt clear over their heads, landing in the dusty remains of the table and bench. He tore out into the hall, wand slipping easily into his grasp and firing the strongest binding curse he could think of at Bellatrix Lestrange as she laughingly blasted her way through the screaming house-elves.

His spell took her by surprise, slamming into her chest and sending her reeling backward into the remains of the staircase. Before she could recover, spells from Abby and Emmy's wands struck her. While Ron's spell worked to keep her from being able to pull her arms and legs away from her body, Emmy's wrapped her tightly in rope and Abby's fractured her bones in dozens of places.

Ron strode toward, ignoring her agonised screams. He felt nothing, she didn't deserve his pity or his anger, she didn't deserve all of the energy he had wasted torturing her these past months. He used his wand to drag her out of the remains of the stairs and then walked to her. He didn't say a word, to her or anyone else; he just stared into her hate filled eyes and broke her neck.

'Leave her for Voldemort to find.'

He didn't go back into the hall and he didn't make his way upstairs. Instead, he walked straight out the open front doors. He was going to see his girl.

* * *

Reginald Duff had never heard of Daphne Greengrass, he had never even heard of the room in the Department of Mysteries where she was being kept. All he knew was that one day he had been presented with a problem. His old mentor had approached him with an incredibly difficult scenario and asked him to figure out how to fix it.

At first he'd just glanced over the readings, not taking much notice as he was rather embroiled in a fantastic volume that was attempting – rather well – to convince him that something he had always believed to be true about magical theory was in fact completely wrong. So he'd had a look at his mentor's scribbling and gone back to his research. He'd gotten through another two chapters before he froze, looked up at his fireplace and blinked in surprise.

He tossed his book aside and scrambled to grab up the papers he'd casually tossed aside hours ago. He reread them again and again, his eyes growing wider and wider with each passing word. This was impossible; this was something that had only been theorised in the smallest and darkest circles of magical theory. Why was his mentor handing it to him?

But it was a challenge, something new for him to untangle and make sense of and so he tore into it with fervour his research had recently been lacking. He was vaguely aware of his wife bringing him meals and at one point he was sure his son had wandered in and grumpily whacked him with his toy broomstick but this theory was fascinating.

He worked at it for months, only stopping to shower when his wife insisted that the smell of his study was getting a bit ripe or for his son's birthday because it didn't matter how important his work was he couldn't miss that and still have all the vital body parts necessary to perhaps, at a later date, create some more progeny.

He worked and he worked until one day he came across something in a completely unrelated text he'd picked up to try and distract himself in the hopes that a fresh look would give him the answer. The answer he was looking for stared back at him from a book on the theory of magical passage. Completely unaware of the early hour he'd scrambled about, gathering up random bits and pieces that he thought he might need, snatched up his findings and apparated right into his mentor's study without so much as a polite knock on a wall.

'I found it!' he announced triumphantly to the very empty room.

* * *

She was aware. Sometimes her thoughts were clear, the feel of skin under her hands, of counting freckles like she had all the time in the world. She had memories of tastes, her favourite food and the sickly smell of her chest wound. She would feel the shape of a smile pressing kisses to her neck and the feel of her mother's arms around her. She remembered the weight of a child in her arms, one not her own, and the fantasy of one that was.

This was awareness.

She was aware. She felt pain like a blister of heat washing across her back. She had the memories of pressure and pain and the suffocating feeling of air being withheld. She heard sounds of fear and pain. Of regret and sadness. She heard love and the bark of a watch dog. Fading light. Darkness.

This was death.

A jerk, a sharp intake of breath.

This was life. Awareness was life.

Darkness was death.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Ag –

* * *

The storm cloud that was Ron Weasley walked smack into the flurry of excitement that was Reginald Duff. Parchment cascaded to the floor and Reginald went with it. Ron remained standing looking down at the man he'd never met in bewilderment. He honestly hadn't expected there to be anyone around at this time of morning, just the usual night staff and the Auror assigned to protect and watch over Daphne.

'Sorry, mate,' Ron apologised, pulling Reg to his feet and then crouching to help him collect up his work. 'Wasn't expecting anyone here.'

'No harm done,' Reg replied, shoving the last of the parchment into a pile and standing. 'Don't suppose you could direct me to lab 7 could you?'

The question was asked before Reg actually got a good look at Ron and when he did his eyes narrowed and he considered that maybe Ron shouldn't have been down there in the first place. Before he could start accusing Ron of things he didn't do, Ron spoke.

'You're one of the researchers working on Daphne?' Without waiting for a reply, Ron pressed a hand to Reg's back and started guiding him down the twisting corridors of the Department of Mysteries research labs.

'Daphne?' Reg asked with confusion.

Ron didn't get a chance to clarify because an aging wizard with short grey hair rounded the corner ahead of them. 'There you are Reg!' quickly adding, 'Weasley, we've done it!'

'You've what?' startled Ron; shoving passed the old wizard and almost sprinting down the last stretch of corridor.

His heart was racing when he burst into the research lab, startling the Auror on duty into pulling his wand and eliciting a bark out of Sirius. The disappointment he felt when he saw Daphne still encased in the shell of the spells working on her was almost enough to break him. He approached her hesitantly, sadness pressing down on him like a weight. He reached out as though to touch her and pulled back sharply when the tingly feeling of the spell became too much.

Behind him, Reg was confronted with the knowledge that he had been working on a very real problem this whole time and that he was about to be asked to apply his solution to a very real teenage witch. One look at Ron's face, filled with love and such sadness, was all it took to convince him that it was worth it.

'We found a way to break the spells,' David explained to Ron. 'It's risky and it has to be timed perfectly but we think we can get her out of there.'

Ron didn't ask any questions just nodded and issued the order for them to try. It took them an hour to set everything up, to make sure they had the right runes in the perfect positions and to make sure they had timed her progress through life and death well enough to bring her out alive. It took another forty five minutes to prepare the spell but in the end it only took seven words and a complicated wrist movement to break the spells.

Ron was terrifyingly aware of every second that ticked by. His hands clenched in fists and his fingernails left bloody half moons in his palms. He watched, barely breathing as Daphne's passage through the spells was frozen in life and then as each layer of spell was painstakingly removed.

He was by her side the moment the spells came down. His hands touched her gently, lovingly as he supported her limp form. Her eyes opened and she looked at him with so much feeling that he didn't care that he was crying.

'Oh.'

She clung to him for the moment uncaring of her injuries and sobbed until his shirt was soaked with her tears.

'I love you,' he whispered over and over into her hair. 'I love you, I've got you.'


	12. Chapter 12

**a/n: **a very big thank you to all of the wonderfull people who took the time to leave me a review, enjoy this next taste!

**Chapter 12**

The first thing Harry was aware of that morning was the foreign weight in his bed. In the last month he had resigned himself to loneliness and gotten depressingly used to sleeping alone so this new addition was both comforting and alarming. He cracked open one eye and a pair of bright green eyes stared back at him. His other eye snapped open in alarm and his daughter laughed delightedly as if to say how happy she was her daddy was finally awake and ready to play.

He had definitely gone to bed alone the night before and the deep red curtains surrounding his bed and the smaller mattress definitely said he was still in his dormitory at Hogwarts. He really hoped Ally had been by for a visit because if not they were in for a nightmare of a time. Flaming already? The terrible twos just got more foreboding.

The hangings on his bed were jerked aside and Seamus looked down on him with a frown that was leaning awfully toward becoming an amused smile.

'Bugger off,' Harry snapped, sitting up and scooping his daughter into his arms. 'And what are you doing here, hmm?'

Molly didn't have a reply but she reached out and wrapped her arms around his neck, placing wet open mouthed kisses against his neck.

'It's a good thing you're cute.'

He was wriggling into a pair of jeans when Pip appeared with a sharp crack, her big eyes closing in relief when she spotted Molly safe in Harry's arms. 'Master Harry, I is sorry,' she squeaked. 'Miss Molly vanished and Mistress Ally is away on business.'

'It's alright, Pip,' Harry assured the distressed elf, 'I'll watch her this morning, why don't you come and get her around lunchtime?'

Pip disappeared with another crack and Harry looked around the dormitory, not surprised to see Ron's bed empty despite the early hour. In the week that Daphne had been free of the curse Ron had left her side only long enough to attend Potions and Transfiguration. Harry himself had been to see Daphne twice at St Mungo's. He couldn't imagine how lonely it got of a night when visiting hours were up. If it weren't for Ron blatantly ignoring the hospital's rules Daphne would be alone in a wing with no one but an Auror standing guard for company and the occasional healer.

He didn't fancy traipsing down to breakfast with Molly and instead flamed to St Mungo's, appearing in the hallway outside Daphne's room and startling the Auror on duty. He nodded hello and entered the room. Sure enough, Ron was sitting cross legged at the foot of Daphne's bed. They were sharing a breakfast of pancakes and syrup while talking in whispers. Daphne's head whipped around at the sound of the door opening and Harry froze. It only took a moment for her to recognise her visitors and relax. Harry began moving again, pulling up a chair by the bed after handing Molly off to an eager Daphne.

They passed a pleasant hour at the hospital until Daphne's mother arrived to take Ron's place. She kissed Ron tenderly on the head before he left and smiled at Harry. Daphne's family had never held what happened to her against the ADADA, they understood what their daughter was doing and were proud of the way she was fighting for what she believed in. It was a stark contrast to the disapproval that Molly Weasley frequently laid on her children and Harry could see that it meant a lot to Ron to know that, far from accusing him, this family thought of him as one of their own.

Harry took the street exit from the hospital and just walked aimlessly for a bit around the city. He wasn't ashamed to admit that he was avoiding heading back to Hogwarts. On a whim he changed direction and ended up on the tube heading toward the twins.

And that was how he spent the morning. He visited the twins at their shop where Molly experienced the overstimulation of any child surrounded by bright colours and silliness. He swung by Moody's but the old man was out, had a nice cup of tea and some cake with his aunt who spent a good forty minutes joyfully playing with Molly and then rounded out his visiting with a quick lunch with Lupin.

Lupin looked worse than Harry had seen him before. His skin was pallid, his hair was greasy and grey and his clothes hung off him. He'd lost a lot of weight recently and Harry frowned. Cleary they needed to wrap up their loose ends in the werewolf community because it was killing his old friend. They had a quick bite to eat in a cafe a few streets away from a den he was infiltrating. He was drawing a number of disapproving looks from the other customers but Lupin's tired smile seemed to soften them and nobody went so far as to ask him to leave.

Harry tipped the server quite well just to make up for the apparent strain on the cafe's image and they ducked into a side ally where Pip popped in to take over Molly's care.

'We'll be quick,' Harry promised Lupin. 'You won't need to be in that den more than the rest of the week.'

'There are kids in there, Harry,' Lupin told him warily. 'They have no home to go to, no families to return to. Destroying their home is bringing them no kindness.'

Harry nodded, he knew all this already but they couldn't ignore that these werewolf cubs were sharing a den and in the control of a group of werewolves fiercely loyal to Voldemort. They'd all been bitten, turned and trained by Greyback. They didn't deserve the same kindness as the kids they were trusted with and the kids certainly didn't deserve the horrors of living with men and women of that sort. It didn't solve the problem of what would happen however when the den was raided. The magical community was still mostly unwilling to accept werewolves so it wasn't like there were good homes that would take the kids in.

'Are they school age?' he asked suddenly.

'Some,' Lupin responded, 'Not all.'

With a shrug and an I'll-deal-with-this-later smile, Harry flamed to Grimmauld Place. He had an appointment with the Order and he didn't need the distraction of orphans weighing on his mind while he tried to out manoeuvre Voldemort and untangle the web of half-truths that Dumbledore was constantly leaving in his wake.

The basement kitchen was empty when he arrived, unusual as it was still the only room in the house large enough to host an Order meeting. It was certainly the biggest room that had been thoroughly cleaned. Standing in the kitchen was enough reason to understand why Sirius would be looking for a new place to live, Harry couldn't imagine how strong the urge to get away would be standing in some of the other rooms, the ones that hadn't yet been properly cleaned and contained often horrible memories from his childhood. He'd always thought growing up the way he had at the Dursley's was bad but the longer he spent in the magical world interacting with dark wizards the more he realised he was lucky one of Voldemort's Death Eaters hadn't found him instead.

He followed the sound of voices upstairs and into the library; there he found Tonks and Sirius deep in conversation in front of the fire. Both had serious expressions on their faces and it looked to Harry like Tonks was comforting his godfather. Sirius' expression was certainly pained. Before Harry could ask what was wrong, Sirius spotted him and in an instant the wary looking man vanished behind a mask of excited godfather.

'Harry, excellent, just the man I wanted to see.' He beckoned Harry to join them and then held a book up for him to see. 'I think we've found something about Horcruxes. Ruby,' he seemed to hesitate over her name but it was so slight, Harry wasn't sure he hadn't just imagined it, 'found this in her father's library.'

Harry took the book and read the passage Sirius was indicating. The more he read the more he became sickened by everything Tom Riddle had become. The forethought that had to go into preparing the spell and then actively killing someone just to slow death was horrific. Harry couldn't imagine what it took to kill someone in order to split your soul, to tear an essential part of yourself in half just to put off the inevitable was a sickening perversion of nature that chilled Harry to the core.

'This is how he survived the rebounded killing curse?' Harry breathed.

Ideas were fizzling inside his brain now. Before Voldemort had seemed a larger than life opponent but here, Sirius had just handed him the key to his destruction. If they could find Voldemort's horcrux, if they could find whatever it was that was anchoring Voldemort to life then they stood a real chance of killing him. Hope flared in Harry's chest and he couldn't help the grin that lit up his entire face.

'We are going to win.''

Six hours later he wasn't feeling nearly as confident. He'd gone straight from his impromptu meeting with Sirius and Tonks to find Hermione, going so far as to drag her out of her Athrimancy class to show her the book Ruby had found. At first she'd been just as horrified as Harry but then she'd gotten that familiar glean in her eyes and before he could blink she'd run off down the corridor shouting something back over her shoulder about knowing just the book to look at. Bemused, Harry had wandered up to the ADADA offices to kill time before dinner.

He'd spent a wonderfully calm afternoon watching the comings and goings of his friends and a questionable half hour with Malfoy trying to squeeze any bit of useful information he could out of the cooperative (and he used that term very loosely) Slytherin. Before long he'd found himself ambling along corridors toward Dumbledore's office.

He'd been in there all of thirty minutes when he felt the hope filled balloon that had swelled inside him burst.

'Good evening, Harry,' Dumbledore greeted calmly, a notable change to their last conversation which had ended with Dumbledore calling Harry an arrogant young murderer and Harry shouting back that Dumbledore was a senile old fool.

'Headmaster,' Harry inclined his head politely and took one of the chairs before the headmasters desk. He resisted the urge to put his feet up.

'I know we have not seen eye to eye on a lot of things recently, Harry,' he paused and Harry wondered if he'd been waiting for some sort of sarcastic response, the kind that Harry had automatically bitten back. 'I understand, however, that we are both striving to bring an end to Voldemort's reign of terror. To that end I would like you to view a memory with me.'

Harry hated to admit it but viewing a memory wasn't what he was expecting from this meeting and his curiosity was immediately peeked. He took the opportunity when Dumbledore was leaning into a cabinet to collect his pensieve to make eye contact with an invisible Stephanie who was perched in Ginny's usual position on top of a bookcase. Although he couldn't see her expression he knew without doubt that she was pulling a face at him so he pulled one back. When Dumbledore turned around Harry's face was straight and he was looking politely puzzled.

Dumbledore placed the pensive on his desk and then removed a leather pouch from another cabinet, one that he had to unlock with a complicated wave of his wand. A complicated gesture Harry didn't recognise but filed away for future use, should the need arise to break into Dumbledores belongings. Again.

From the leather pouch Dumbledore removed a single vile of silvery memory. He poured the whispy material into the pensieve and bid Harry to precede him with a polite wave of his hand. With a shrug, Harry leant forward and stuck his finger in the memory. He felt a sharp tug and he was sent hurtling downward into grey mist. His feet landed firmly on the ground and he had just a moment to take in his surroundings before Dumbledore appeared behind him.

They were standing in a country lane bordered by hedge rows. This gave Harry nothing to go on and described a great portion of the country roads he'd stood on in the last year.

'This way Harry,' and off he went leaving Harry to trail after him in confusion.

He emerged from the memory twenty minutes later his mind reeling. Dumbledore didn't say anything as they retook their chairs but Harry doubted he would have heard the headmaster anyway. He felt a twinge of pity for the boy Voldemort had once been, to have come from such a destructive and prideful family? To be the product of a desperate woman's fantasy?

But he couldn't think like that. There was no room in this war to feel pity for a boy that hadn't existed for decades. _We are a product of the choices we make_, Harry reminded himself. There was no point in thinking on what could have been, instead he needed to focus on what else Dumbledore had shown him. What was the significance of the ring? Why had Voldemort come back for it and why had Dumbledore then sought it out?

The fact that it belonged to Slytherin gave the ring some importance but –

Horcrux.

The word reverberated around inside his head and his heart started pounding in his chest. It couldn't be that easy, could it? Dumbledore couldn't have just handed them the key to the destruction of Voldemort could he? Harry didn't dare hope anymore, the thought that the end was within reach was too much. He looked up to find Dumbledore studying him closely.

'You feel pity for the boy he was,' Dumbledore observed and Harry was offended to note the wonder in the headmaster's voice.

'I feel pity for Merope,' Harry acknowledged, unwilling to voice his feelings regarding the young Tom Riddle just yet. 'She was desperate and knew no better, she was longing for something safe and happy. I can empathise.'

They sat in silence for long minutes until Harry, still lost deep in his thoughts, asked for permission to leave. If Dumbledore had anything else he wanted to share it wasn't going to happen in that session, he seemed to realise Harry was lost to his own thoughts for the evening and nodded him on his way.

Out in the corridor he walked in a daze, the word horcrux repeating over and over in his head. They had been searching for months (months!) to find any shred of information that could explain why Voldemort had been guarding the word horcrux so fervently. To be giving two separate pieces of information on the same day seemed so unreal that Harry didn't know what to believe.

Finally finding out what a Horcrux was had given them all such hope that he could be defeated. To then find out that Dumbledore had clearly known all along what was keeping Voldemort alive made it seem less like a victory and more like just another piece of a much larger more complicated puzzle. That didn't sit well with Harry, he didn't like knowing for certain that he was so many steps behind Dumbledore and that the headmaster was only now sharing what had seemed the most important piece of information Harry would need in the fight against Voldemort.

The question that had begun nagging at him the moment he'd recognised the cracked ring on the headmaster's hand was if the horcrux was destroyed why was Dumbledore showing him the memory of its original owners? Why was he showing the memory without explanation? What information or idea was he attempting to very slowly unveil? These troubling thoughts circled round and round in his head as he tried to piece together everything he knew about Voldemort, the way Dumbledore operated and the little he had recently learned of horcruxes.

The passageways were silent this time of night, though Harry was under no illusions that the entire castle was sleeping. There were prefects stalking the corridors and sixth and seventh year students standing watch over various points in the castles. He knew the ADADA rooms would be abuzz with activity and that was where his feet were unconsciously leading him. He hoped Hermione was in the Martin library, he had about a hundred questions for her.

Stephanie was the first person he came across when he entered; she was sitting at the desk that had once been his, scratching labels on glass vials filled with memories. He did a double take and couldn't help but give her a hug from behind. 'Are those what I think they are?' he asked with a laugh.

'Of course,' Stephanie confirmed. 'It was too good an opportunity to miss.'

Harry felt so damn proud of her in that moment, that she'd snuck down and copied the very memories that Dumbledore and he had sampled tonight, without being asked was a stroke of brilliance. Nevermind that she'd had a short amount of time to figure out the complicated locking charm. He'd have a chance to study them, to have Hermione and Ruby look over them and tease out every last piece of useful information.

He looked up grinning when the door to the twins' lab opened, all set to announce this excellent find when two things happened. One, he recognised that Ginny was in no way looking pleased about whatever she had been doing in there and two, he had a sudden and horrible thought that the distraught look on her face dragged to the forefront of his mind.

What if there was more than one?


	13. Chapter 13

**a/n: **Well this has certainly been a long time coming. I'm so very sorry for the wait and hope you enjoy this update. Thank you to all of my wonderful reviewers!

**Chapter 13**

Suggesting the word awkward to describe it was a kindness she wasn't sure could be placed anywhere near the vicinity of what was happening. Ally wanted to turn away but at the same time she couldn't help but watch, fascinated, as everything ground to a sudden halt and the world started to wobble and ultimately, she assumed, plummet into a dark, stormy mood that would likely see her drunk before the day was out and pulling out all the stops on best friend duty.

Sure they'd joked about it, her and Harry and probably quite a few other members of the Order but she didn't think anyone had actually been serious about it. But this, this was just painful to watch. She knew with absolute certainty, that there was no way they could have seen this coming.

When Ruby had said she might know where they could find some information about Horcruxes neither she nor Sirius had any idea that they'd be spending the entire day getting down and dusty in the basement of her muggle grandmother's bookstore. As Ruby led the way down a crumbling wooden staircase into the surprisingly well lit room, Ally had felt any hope of enjoying her afternoon drifting away. The little basement room contained thousands of books, dozens of bookcases brimming with dusty volumes that, judging by the smell alone, hadn't seen the light of day in at least fifty years.

'Gran doesn't come down here,' Ruby explained ruefully. 'Not since that time she came down here after Grandad died and one of the volumes down the back tried to eat her hand.'

Sirius snapped his hand away from the cover he was inspecting, suddenly afraid to touch anything without first checking for enchantments. Instead he pulled out his wand and together they moved through the room checking for enchantments. They started with any traps Ruby's grandad may have set and after Ruby triggered a particularly nasty stinging hex, Sirius was doubly glad he pulled his hand back.

It took them three hours and more than thirty spells and hexes but eventually they were able to move around the room without wincing on every step, dreading a spell they couldn't see or hear. They didn't exactly make the best team for this kind of search, at one point Ally found herself lost in a fascinating account by a Moroccan wizard who had spent five years living with a group of fire worshipping magical villagers in a distant part of the Sahara desert. Another time it was Sirius who found he had been sucked into a book about animagi that had a fascinating new take on the first stage of the process.

It was pushing close to lunch time when Ruby finally found the book she was looking for. Dusty, with a faded brown cover, the lettering of the title had completely worn away, leaving only the imprint from the stamp to give any indication it had ever had one. The moment her fingers had brushed against the spine of the book dark thoughts had begun tugging at her mind and she had tugged her fingers back with a horrified squeal.

In the end Sirius was the only one able to take the book down from the shelf. His twelve years spent in Azkaban made him resistant to the creeping nature of the book and he was able to open it and check through for the information they were looking for. He found what he was looking for in chapter three and all three gave a shudder when he read aloud just exactly what a horcrux was. If they were talking about anyone other than Lord Voldemort Ally would have had trouble believing anyone could go to such lengths. She could never imagine fearing death so much that tearing her very soul in two would be the better option.

High on their success and disgusted by Voldemort (more so than usual) they said goodbye to Ruby's grandmother, insisting they were too busy to stay for tea and cake (they weren't but her grandmother had never been one for baking) and flamed to the garden behind Ruby's cottage in a tiny muggle village on the Scottish border. In the time it had taken her to vanish and reappear, Ruby and Sirius had managed to get into a friendly debate over who made the better muffins. For a moment Ally just stood there, exasperated and feeling like she was on babysitting duty.

The debate ended when Sirius tossed Ruby over his shoulder and informed her, with a slap to her ass, that he made the better muffins and would happily prove it. At this point Ally started after them, knowing that yes, Sirius did make the better muffins (because he put caramel in the middle) and that what was about to happen in Ruby's kitchen would certainly make up for the hours in a dusty basement.

Pushing open the backdoor of the cottage, Sirius flipped and spun Ruby back to her feet, laughing when she poked her tongue out at him. Ally moved to follow them in but they both froze and she walked into Sirius' back with a sharp oomph sound.

'What - ' but she didn't finish her question because she could see what had brought Sirius and Ruby to such a sudden standstill. Aiden Whims was in her best friend's kitchen. 'Oh.'

'Hi,' Ruby greeted breathlessly, taking a step forward before stopping at the feel of Sirius' hand slipping from the small of her back. Ally wanted to run away, to grab her friend in a hug but it was the look on Sirius' face that truly made her heart ache. His smile had frozen in place, not slipping away as he quickly pulled on a mask of cheerfulness he clearly didn't feel. She knew Harry's godfather well enough to know that he was hurting but she also knew he would never interfere unless Ruby said something. Judging by the look on Ruby's face she didn't know what to say or do.

'Hello,' Aiden greeted cheerfully, his eyes never leaving Ruby. 'Miss me?'

'We should go,' Sirius said to her quietly and Ally hesitated. She didn't want to just leave and from the way Ruby had made a jerky motion when Sirius spoke she didn't think her friend wanted them to leave anymore than they wanted to go. But Ally also knew that Sirius was right and so she reached out and wrapped her arm around Sirius' and flamed them both out of there.

She didn't say anything when they arrived in the basement kitchen of Grimmauld Place but the look on her face must have said it all because Tonks immediately rose to her feet, looking from one to the other in concern. Sirius didn't say anything, just quietly left the room which left Ally seeking a hot cup of tea and a way to avoid being the one to explain to Tonks.

Tonks didn't ask just helped her make some tea and then sat quietly waiting for her to speak. Never one for silences, Tonks fidgeted a bit which made Ally laugh. 'Aiden Whims has come back.'

'Oh,' Tonks responded. 'Oh!' They sat in silence for a bit longer while Tonks debated what to do; eventually she nodded, put down her tea cup and went to the pantry for something a bit stronger. 'I'll handle this.' And with Firewhiskey in hand, she braced herself and walked out of the room.

Ally didn't stay to finish her tea; instead she went home to her daughter. She spent a few hours playing with Molly but her eye was always on the clock and she kept expecting Ruby to turn up. When she didn't turn up Ally didn't know whether to be relieved or concerned. To distract herself she went to visit Petunia Dursley which proved to be well worth the while when she arrived in the middle of an afternoon clean out. It turned out that quite a few of the things that had been salvaged from the old house on Privet Drive had been things belonging to Lily and their parents.

When Ally put Molly to bed that night it was with a simple gold chain around her neck with a delicate lily on it. Harry would be pleased, she knew, to know that his daughter could have something that belonged to his mother, especially something that came from the muggle side of his family as there was so little of that, even less than he had from his wizarding relatives.

Ruby never did show but Harry did crawl into bed with her in the very early hours of the morning. She didn't know if he got any sleep but when she woke around six thirty he was lying on his side watching her. He had a haunted look in his eyes and he was watching her with wonder, almost as though he couldn't believe his luck in finding her. Almost like he was worried he was about to lose her.

'I found out something today that scares me,' he told her in a whisper.

'Sirius told you about horcruxes?' Ally guessed, rolling onto her side so they were facing each other, noses almost touching so that Harry was slightly out of focus.

'Something worse,' he admitted, voice full of disgust even as there was wonder in it. 'Dumbledore showed me a memory last night, a memory about the Gaunts.'

Ally listened as he told her about the memory of the man from the Ministry meeting with Voldemort's wizarding relatives, of how Stephanie had copied the memories that Dumbledore had selected this particular memory from and how the memory of Ginny's first year at Hogwarts had given him a horrible idea which a viewing of another of Dumbledore's memories had confirmed for him.

Voldemort had six horcruxes and only two had been destroyed. This knowledge wasn't exactly the best way she could have started her day but as it turned out it very much set the tone for the rest of it.

They were having a nice breakfast as a family when there came a knock at the door. Given that most people they knew didn't bother to knock and the rest tended to burst in with desperate news, it took them both by surprise. When Pip came in with Aiden Whims trailing behind her the surprise only changed, it didn't disappear.

Harry's eyes widened over his juice and he pulled a face that Ally knew meant he'd just realised what this might mean for his godfather. Still, he stood and shook hands, greeting the Quidditch keeper with a friendly ribbing about his time away and his return to the Lonely Wench. He took it well, the jokes at his expense but he didn't look especially happy now that he was back.

'Have you seen Ruby?' he asked, getting around to the reason behind his visit. 'We were supposed to have breakfast this morning but she didn't show.'

They hadn't and he left shortly after they'd told him so. Given how early it was she couldn't have been gone for long and it probably had something to do with the Order. They weren't worried, especially when the messenger owl turned up and they had to leave Molly in the care of the house elves. Remus had sent the signal; it was time to destroy another of Voldemort's werewolf dens.

Planning for this attack had taken an hour, it should have taken longer but there was really only one way they could go about taking down the den and it wasn't an easy decision. Kingsley Shacklebot already had the wards up when they arrived. A dome covered the rundown house ensuring that once inside its border no one would be getting out without his say so. They didn't want any werewolves escaping them and it didn't matter if they were the mature adults wholly aligned with Voldemort or the young impressionable ones who were just looking for a home. No werewolf could be let loose on the muggle town.

They paired up and each took an entry. Harry and Ally took the back door, the Weasley twins took the second floor balcony and Tonks took the front with another auror. Kingsley and three other Ministry aurors maintained the boundary wards. Harry took great pleasure blowing the door in and the pain filled howl that came in response was satisfying. A man in the kitchen had heard them approach but he'd been caught by surprise by the violence with which Harry opened the door. Ally had no idea why, it wasn't as though anyone the man associated with was particular friendly.

Ally took the time to kill him with a severing charm as Harry led the way inside. He was beyond help and they had no real place to hold prisoners long term. Remus had assured them the only people in the house worth saving were under the age of ten. It was an unpleasant thought. Someone came flying out of the doorway to her left and something big and heavy slammed into her side. Finger nails scratched at her like claws, failing to make purchase on the tough leather of her dragon hide jacket as she fought to get her wand between her and her attacker.

Fire burst from her hands, charring her attacker where her arms were pinned to her side. He jerked back slightly from the pain and she was finally able to bring her wand up. She blasted him back from her with enough force that he left a dent in the wall. Her next spell whipped across his face and chest like a burning poker, tearing red hot slashes into her skin and clothes. The sound he made was more animal than human as he tried hopelessly to pull himself off the wall but she held him firm. Her last spell slammed into him, absorbed by his body before it burst out of him, shattering bones and killing him instantly. When she finally made it out of the kitchen after Harry she was covered in blood.

She stepped over the body of a girl in the hallway. She couldn't have been more than twelve and she had to swallow back the urge to throw up. She hated that Harry had been the one to bring the young girl down and she hated that Voldemort had only played a small role. The wizarding community at large could share the blame for this, their ancient laws regarding werewolves were definitely a huge part of the reason this girl was here.

Harry slammed into the wall in front of her, his attacker barrelling after him out of the living room. She hit the woman in the side with a scorching hex and then left her to Harry as she darted into the room they'd just come from. There was no one else in the room so she went back out into the hall where Harry had just finished with the woman. Screaming from upstairs sent them running toward the staircase, leaving the rest of the first floor for Tonks and her partner.

The screaming, it turned out, was coming from three young girls who were huddled in the corner of a bedroom looking like they hadn't bathed in quite some time, dressed in rags. All three were different ages and had their hands over their ears and their eyes shut as they screamed at the top of their lungs. A pair of boys, maybe fourteen years old, were standing in front of the girls, backs to the trio, stolen wands in hand, held up to ward off the twins who were too busy fighting with another three werewolves to bother with the kids just then. Harry stunned one of the men; giving the twins to chance they needed to kill the other two. Harry stepped forward and used his knife to slit the stunned mans throat.

Ally had her hands full with the kids. Remus' information was always good but here were two boys protecting their pack, two boys who were above his ten year age bracket. Unable to bring herself to kill them she hit them both quickly with the most powerful stunner she knew. They went down and the girls just kept screaming, forcing her to stun them as well. Once they were all bound, she called out for the twins and Tonks.

Nineteen werewolves were dead, ranging in age from twelve to sixty and thirteen kids were stunned, restrained and ready for transportation, to where no one was too sure. Remus emerged from the basement some time during the struggle and he'd been fighting side by side with Tonks until the last werewolf went down. Living proof that the wizarding and muggle world weren't properly equipped to handle a werewolf, he was one of the kindest people Harry knew. They'd promised to help him with the cubs but it wasn't as if they could just take them home or drop them off at an orphanage.

'We'll take them to Grimmauld place,' Tonks said firmly, her hand pressed to her cheek where she'd been hit with a stinging hex. 'Sirius and I talked about it, about using the place for something more than just the Order.'

'It's his home,' Remus said with surprise, touched by his friend's kindness.

'Not really,' Tonks replied with a careless shrug. 'He always hated it there.'

It was only once they'd all made their way back to Order headquarters and had the werewolf cubs separated and warded into their own bedrooms that Tonks thought to ask Harry if he'd seen Sirius.

'Not since yesterday, why?'

'I can't find him,' Tonks murmured, not sounding particularly worried.

'He probably just needs space,' Harry replied. 'You know that Ruby's fiancé is back?'

'Yeah,' she said slowly, 'you're probably right.'

Harry frowned but they were interrupted by Remus who was smiling widely and swept Tonks into a tight hug. 'Thank you,' he told her sincerely. 'Thank you for this.'

Tonks shrugged, cheeks tinged with pink. 'It was Sirius' idea; he thought werewolves could use a proper place to stay.'

'Where is Padfoot?' Remus asked, looking about the crowded kitchen at the members of the Order that had been slowly turning up for a meeting. 'I haven't seen him to thank him.'

'Oh he's off somewhere with Ruby,' Tonks lied easily.

It was an excuse everyone would believe, it didn't occur to either of them it might be the truth.


	14. Chapter 14

**a/n: **Thank you everyone for your continued interest in this story and all of the wonderful reviews you have left me! I hope you enjoy this chapter as we are starting to get right into the hunt for Voldemort's horcruxes.

**Chapter 14**

Until he'd begun spending time with Daphne, Ron had always imagined his life would be easy. He'd probably have married Hermione, had a couple of kids and gotten a job and a house and lived just like his parents did. He might even have been happy in that life, given that he would know no better. But he _had_ gotten to know Daphne; he'd fallen in love with her, with the way she always looked at him with a cross between exasperation and affection. With the way she could kick his ass and beat him at any of the spell work they were handed. He fell in love with the way she took charge of things, dove straight into a fight and could still smile at him afterward with a suggestive wink.

Most of all he loved her strength. He loved her for being able to ask for help when she needed it and her ability to not let what happened to her break her. She may not have been completely healed from the experience but she was well on her way. She pulled him closer when she needed it and stood on her own when she knew it was necessary. She yelled at him for coddling her and then cried when she thanked him. She visited his mother once, when she needed nothing more than a hug and a warm cup of tea and spent an entire weekend working with the twins in their shop when he couldn't be there and she didn't want to be alone.

He loved her and so he didn't even hesitate, his hand reached for the cup and he had gulped down the first mouthful before he had actually thought the process through. They had no idea what the liquid was but the fact remained the only way to get to the bottom of the basin was to drink its contents.

Afterward he didn't remember much about the experience. He remembered feeling like his body was on fire and numb all at the same time, he thought there might have been screaming but he also thought _he_ might have been the one screaming. It was intense agony and utterly terrifying, the whole time all he could think was that he wanted to die, that he didn't want to drink, that they couldn't make him drink. Then, like a switch had been flipped, he was pleading for Daphne not to stop, to keep feeding him the potion until it was all gone.

It could have been hours or minutes later when the feelings finally lifted and Ron sagged back onto the ground, hands clawing at the sand while he waited for the world to right itself. His throat felt raw and he supposed that answered the question about the screaming. He opened his eyes and looked directly into Daphne's. His head was resting in her lap, her arms wrapped securely around him, her face was as white as a sheet and the hands around him were shaking. Crouched by his side, Astoria was crying, her hands gripping his jeans tightly.

'Did we get it?' he croaked, mouth dry and tongue feeling like he'd swallowed a mouthful of sand.

'Not quite.' Ron may have still been confused and befuddled by the potion but he would never be confused enough not to recognise that Daphne sounded angry. It was always so much easier to identify that emotion in her when it wasn't directed at him. He didn't know what she was angry about and until he sorted himself out he wouldn't be much help to her.

'Help me up.'

Between the three of them they managed to get him righted though he was still a little shaky. Every now and then his body would shudder and his knees would wobble. Two steps was an effort, there was no way he was going to be able to make the journey unaided. Daphne drew one of his arms across her shoulders and hugged him close to her side. Astoria led the way back to the little boat, sending near constant glances back to make sure they were still following and hadn't fallen.

Ron wasn't sure that hunting a Horcrux had been the best initiation into the fight against Voldemort for her but all of their research suggested that enchantments were the biggest protection surrounding the pieces of Voldemort's soul and so far, aside from a little emotional scarring, the research had been spot on.

Though navigating the three into the tiny boat had been a difficult enough experience when they were all stable, it was nearly impossible now that he was all wobbly and unbalanced. Astoria climbed in first, her small frame attempting to hold the boat steady as Ron wobbled on board. Daphne wobbled slightly and her foot landed in the water. She squeaked at the cold, lifting her foot right back out of the water and into the boat.

'There's something in there!' Astoria hissed, pointing in alarm at the spot her sister's foot had just been. They all whipped around making the boat wobble even more but there wasn't anything there. Ron shuddered again and tapped the boat with his wand to speed it across the lake. No sooner had the boat lurched forward did something leap out of the water. It took Ron a shocked moment to realise the thing gripping his arm with a cold and terrible strength was a human hand.

Astoria screamed, jerking away from the water and causing the little boat to wobble. Daphne swore, slashing downward with her wand and severing the hand that gripped Ron. He pulled the severed hand from his wrist with a disgusted grimace and flung it far out over the water.

'What the bloody hell was that?' he demanded, raising his wand and casting _lumos _in an attempt to see into the dark water. Something lunged toward the light and he fired a spell into the face that emerged.

'Inferri,' Daphne hissed. 'We need fire.'

'Great idea,' Ron muttered sarcastically, 'being that we're in a wooden boat in the middle of a lake.'

Daphne smacked his arm lightly, almost subconsciously, and tapped the boat urgently with her wand. 'Next time the phoenix gets the inferri.'

With the boat travelling even faster it looked like they might make it to the shore but no sooner had Ron had the thought than a dozen bodies pushed up against the underside of the boat, launching them into the water. Astoria shrieked as she hit the water but Ron didn't have the energy for it. The water closed over his head, filled his ears and nose, stinging him with its chill. He dare not open his mouth to cough, eyes darting from side to side in an attempt to locate either of the Greengrass girls or the inferri.

Something grabbed his ankle and then he was being dragged further under the water. He aimed a cutting curse toward his feet but if he hit one of the corpses or not it didn't release its grip. Lungs bursting for air he kicked and thrashed, trying to dislodge the strong grip on his ankle. Something shot passed him, lighting the darkness around him and causing his mouth to open on a yelp. Water rushed in as the bright light charged toward his captor. The sudden release of his ankle coincided with another hand grabbing his wrist. This one was warm and he immediately started kicking, helping the hand to pull him to the surface.

His head broke through and he gulped much needed oxygen, coughing and sputtering to get rid of the water in his lungs. Shaking the water from his ears and eyes he found himself looking up at Astoria, shivering and soaking in the boat, one hand gripping his wrist, the other, holding tight to the side of the boat. Daphne floated next to him, gripping the side of the boat with her wand raised and fire bursting from its tip.

'Move!' Ron barked, tapping his wand against the boat to set it back on its course toward the shore. He kept his eyes moving over the water as the little boat dragged him to shore, all but running out of the water once they were close enough to the shore to stand.

The three of them stood for a moment on the sand, huddled together and more than a little freaked out. Ron's ankle was beginning to hurt and he didn't want to think what it must look like under his boots and jeans. Astoria's right arm was bleeding from five long gashes that Ron didn't need to ask to know came from fingernails. Daphne appeared unharmed but Ron was willing to bet she would have nightmares when they eventually got to bed.

With little point in drying off until they were back on the beach outside the cave, they hurried back along the shore to the doorway hidden in the wall. At least no one had to cut themselves this time, Astoria was bleeding enough for the wall and a quick smudge of her arm was all it took. None of them really wanted to get back in the water but with a small groan of protest Ron led the way back through the waist high salty water. The further away from the cave they got the more his ankle screamed at him in protest and by the time they began to drag themselves out of the water and onto the beach it wouldn't hold his weight anymore.

'We better take the portkey,' Daphne croaked, teeth chattering. 'I don't think either of us are up to carrying you.'

One emergency portkey (a radish necklace that had once belonged to Luna) later and the three were dry and wrapped in blankets in the hospital wing being treated for cold, curses and injury. Whatever had been under the inferri's fingernails was turning Astoria's arm a disturbing shade of grey, Ron's ankle was broken and Daphne had once more torn open the wound on her chest and it was bleeding through her fresh bandages. It was a sad comment on how used to the wound she was that she hadn't even noticed until Madam Pomfrey had dried her off.

'I best see Harry,' Daphne announced, once she was satisfied Ron and her sister were alright and Madam Pomfrey had done all she could for her cursed chest wound. 'He needs to know what we found.'

'What _did_ we find?' asked Ron as he pushed off the bed and tentatively placed his weight on his sore ankle. It had taken a few whispered words of healing to heal the break but it was still tender and he probably shouldn't have been walking on it.

Daphne frowned at him with disapproval but he gave her a winning smile and she relented with a roll of her eyes. Offering him a shoulder to keep him steady and waving goodbye to her sister who looked to be in for a fun night, Daphne led the way out of the hospital wing and toward the ADADA offices.

'It was a fake,' Daphne told him, her pace slow and awkward with her boyfriend hobbling along. Ron made an effort to speed up and hold most of his own weight. 'Someone beat us to it.'

'Someone else is hunting horcruxes?' Ron's disbelief was palpable. It had taken some serious research in some very dark places to find even a hint of a reference to horcruxes; most people wouldn't even speak of them. He couldn't imagine someone else had just stumbled across the information.

'We know someone else is,' Daphne reminded him.

'What? Dumbledore?' Ron was incredulous, 'I don't see that old man getting to the bottom of that basin.'

'No,' Daphne agreed, 'someone else did, someone with the initials R.A.B.'

The ADADA offices were abuzz with activity. Emmy and Abby were putting Stephanie through her paces, teaching her the very difficult art of not dying while facing more than one opponent. Snape, lip curled in distaste, was bent over Luna's desk looking at something that Ron really hoped wasn't a Quibbler article. Thankfully, Luna's enthusiasm seemed to be about some dead language or other because Hermione kept interjecting with words that definitely weren't English and didn't seem to be improving the potions master's mood.

Harry was deep in conversation with a head bobbing in the fireplace, crouched so he was at eye level with the grizzled and scarred face of Mad-Eye Moody. Whatever they were talking about didn't seem like good news and Ron wondered who else had died in the fight. Jesse and Ginny were having just as intense a conversation, talking animatedly and constantly jabbing at locations on the maps on the back wall with angry or frustrated gestures. Daphne helped Ron onto a couch and moved to speak with Harry. She greeted Mad-Eye briefly but once he'd noticed her Harry had no time for his conversation with the Auror.

'We'll talk more later,' he told floating head. 'Tell me,' he spoke to Daphne, words urgent for good news. 'Tell me everything.'

With Ron's help, Daphne told Harry everything, from finally locating the cave and having to use blood magic to get in, to the potion concealing the locket and the fight with the inferri. When she got to the part about having to force Ron to drink the last of the potion she pulled a heavy silver locket from her pocket and held it out to Harry.

'It's a fake,' she repeated. 'Someone else got there first and left a message for Voldemort to find.'

Harry opened the locket carefully and pulled out the small slip of paper folded inside. He read the words three times, trying to look beyond them to the identity of the horcrux thief. 'R.A.B?' he murmured. 'Do we know anyone with the initials R.A.B?'

'Did someone mention my brother?'

Harry whipped around so fast he almost clobbered Daphne with his elbow. His mouth fell open in surprise and relief washed over him letting him breathe easy for the first time in a week. His godfather stood in the middle of the training mat apparently having arrived by portkey in the middle of Stephanie and Abby's practice, they were both lying flat on their backs at his feet. He looked healthy and happy, not like someone who had been missing for a week and feared dead.

He looked really happy.

'Where the hell have you been?' Harry demanded, moving forward to embrace his godfather even while his tone was heavy with anger.

Sirius rubbed the back of his neck and Harry wasn't sure whether he looked guilty or embarrassed or both. He looked around the room taking in his audience as though unsure he wanted to answer. 'I, er, might have eloped with Ruby?'

Harry blinked. He blinked again. A cushion sailed passed his ear and smacked into Sirius' face. Harry glanced around to see Daphne looking at his godfather with a bemused look on her face. Exasperated, Harry slumped into a chair a silly grin creeping onto his face.

'You didn't?'

'I did,' Sirius admitted, silly grin matching Harry's.

Harry laughed and Ginny bounded up to offer Sirius a hug and some congratulations. Then it seemed everyone (not Snape) wanted to get in on the congratulatory hugs, asking loads of questions about how he had managed to run away with someone elses fiancé and why he hadn't thought to let anyone know.

It was only when Harry was settled opposite his godfather down in the kitchens for a bit of cake and tea to celebrate that Sirius remembered the conversation he'd arrived in the middle of.

'What were you saying about R.A.B?'

Harry filled him in on their locating one of Voldemort's Horcruxes (Sirius whistled his appreciation at Hermione and Remus' research skills and Stephanie's thieving) and how when Daphne and Ron had retrieved it they had discovered someone had placed a fake in its place. He pulled the locket from his pocket and showed Sirius. He took it with a look of interest, opening it and pulling out the piece of parchment.

'Do you know anyone with the initials R.A.B?'

'Yeah,' Sirius replied, his voice strangely quiet. His eyes were glued to the note and Harry noticed his hand shake slightly. 'Regulus Arcturus Black was my brother.'

Stunned, Harry could only stare at his godfather as the newly married man stared at the note, emotion filling his eyes. When he looked up at Harry he had a strange lost expression on his face that Harry hadn't seen since he'd escaped from Azkaban.

'My brother really did die at Voldemort's hand,' Sirius croaked. 'He was trying to stop him.'

Harry knew how much this information meant to Sirius, the knowledge no matter how late it came, that his brother had turned his back on Voldemort and died trying to do the right thing. More and more, light was pushing though the dark history of the Black family and it meant more to Sirius than he would ever admit.

Harry leant across the table to grip Sirius' shoulder. They sat in silence, enjoying the cake and the knowledge that they had taken a very real step today in winning the war against Voldemort.

And _Sirius_ had gotten _married._ The mere thought blew Harry's mind.


	15. Chapter 15

**a/n: **I know that this one is short and slightly filler like but i felt it necessary to separate this chapter from the next which will see the hunt for the locket proper. Still, i hope you enjoy this one and that I haven't sent you away with the extended break between updates.

**Chapter 15**

Even after all of the time spent cleaning Grimmauld Place the summer before last it still surprised Ginny just how much there was to be done. It didn't surprise her however that she was the one stuck doing it. Alright, yes, she wasn't exactly alone but she wasn't sure that being with Draco Malfoy at all counted as being with somebody, especially when she'd only just stopped wanting to kill him every time he opened his mouth.

'How do we know this thing is even still here?' his voice floated up to her from the floor below where he was going through all of the boxes her mother had labelled as valuable trinkets.

Ginny stuck her head out the door of Regulus' bedroom and shouted back down to him, 'We don't. We also don't know where else to look.'

His reply was some sort of grunt but she took that to mean he was done complaining and had gone back to his work. That might have been slightly optimistic given that it was Malfoy. Sure enough, not two minutes later he was shouting back up the stairs to her.

'Uh…Weasley…he…oom…'

It took Ginny a moment to realize that what she was hearing wasn't actually a proper sentence and another moment to decide whether she cared if something in one of those boxes cursed or killed Malfoy. With a roll of her eyes she threw down the shoebox she'd been holding and dashed down the stairs. She collided with Malfoy as he shot out of the storeroom in a hurry to get away from whatever he'd found. The impact knocked them both down, which was fortunate as something shot out of the room behind Malfoy and soared over their heads.

From their tangle on the floor, Ginny could make out something glittery with quite a few sharp pointy teeth. 'Was that a pixie covered in glitter?'

'I'm certain the only answer to that is yes,' Malfoy replied, untangling himself from Ginny and then offering a hand to help her up.

'How in the name of Merlin did my mum miss that?' Drawing her wand she fired a stunner at the little creature and then winced when it froze in mid air and dropped over the edge of the landing. There was a soft thud as it landed on the ground floor below.

'I think the Black's were using it as a Christmas decoration and just never bothered to remove the stasis spell. I broke the charm when I knocked it with my wand.'

'Did you at least find what we were looking for?'

Malfoy gave her a look that suggested she was stupid for even asking and she had to admit that even she knew that if he'd found the necklace he'd have said something long before he started squealing about pixies covered in glitter.

'Was something odd, though,' he eventually offered. 'There weren't all that many valuable trinkets in those boxes. All the showy stuff is still there but someone went though those boxes and took out all the really valuable pieces. Someone who knew what they were looking for.'

'How can you possibly know that?'

'I know the pieces that the Blacks would consider valuable and all of this stuff is the really obvious kind of pricey. There isn't anything of value in here to an old Pureblood family.' Just when Ginny was starting to think she might be a little impressed by his reasoning he added, 'Besides, I'm pretty sure Dung has been here because everything had that distinct smell of Firewhiskey and tobacco.'

It seemed like the sort of thing Dung would do and that told Ginny all she really needed to know about their chances of finding the horcrux. She just hoped that Dung hadn't been so stupid as to lose the one thing they really needed. It didn't seem likely that he would forget the person he'd sold something to just on the off chance that he needed to track them down for some form of payment or a curse.

'So where do we find Dung?'

Malfoy looked at her. 'How the bloody hell should I know? He's your friend.'

'Friend is such a strong word,' Ginny hedged, not committing herself to any particular relationship with the man who had likely just sold their only clue to the location of a horcrux.

'Well your whatever he is just made off with something valuable we need.'

'Why do you even know about horcruxes?' Ginny wondered aloud.

'Potter needed access to Bellatrix's vault, ergo I know.'

'Ergo?' Ginny repeated incredulously. 'Who even uses that word? And he should have killed you once you'd finished being useful, then I wouldn't be stuck with you following me around like I'm some sort of babysitter.'

'I don't need a babysitter, Weasley.'

Ginny snorted but didn't comment any further, choosing instead to lead the way down the stairs to the basement kitchen and the only fireplace connected to the floo network. She was due back at Hogwarts to take her shift in the ADADA student office. She probably already had a list of appointments a mile long and if she didn't want to miss dinner she was going to have to get started on those right away.

Once back in the ADADA rooms, Ginny told Malfoy that if he wanted to be useful he could track down Dung while she went and tried to help her classmates learn to fight the dark arts. He didn't seem particularly thrilled with the idea but she made it quite clear – with the threat of one of her infamous Bat Bogey Hexes – that if he didn't he would be in for a shitty night.

After that he was pretty eager to track down Dung. When she saw the line of students waiting to meet with her she almost would have preferred to help him. Ignoring them for the moment she slipped inside the office and took the roll of parchment Stephanie offered her. It wasn't quite a mile long but there were already seven names on the list, the first of which was Neville.

Looking almost gleeful, Stephanie darted out the door with the offer to send Neville in. Ginny wanted to kill whoever had come up with the great idea of having office hours to assist the student body with their DADA homework. She definitely wanted to kill Hermione for agreeing with McGonagall and Snape that it would be even better if they offered their tutoring skills for other subjects as well.

The least they could have done was give her the lower year DADA students, not stick her with those needing help with Charms. Not that she didn't like Charms, Professor Flitwick was a wonderful teacher, it was just that it was a lot of wand waving and pronunciation and very little ass kicking.

Resigned, she settled behind the desk to help Neville and wished she could have followed Stephanie in her escape.

She wouldn't have been so willing had she known that Stephanie's escape had lasted about as long as it had taken her to walk the three corridors down to the Entrance Hall. That was where she bumped into Dumbledore deep in thought as he supervised the last of the repairs to the staircase. It looked like he was actively making the effort to create a trick step. Joy.

'Afternoon, Professor Dumbledore,' she greeted cheerfully, jumping the step and aiming to keep walking right on by.

'Ah, Miss Decker, a word please.'

Stephanie waited for Dumbledore to approach her and then he directed her to walk with him back to his office.

'I understand you have become quite good friends with Ron Weasley, is he coping better now that Miss Greengrass has recovered?'

Not sure that Daphne's progress could be called recovery, Stephanie nodded that Ron was doing better.

'And how are you coping with the changes to your organization?'

Stephanie sighed heavily and reached out to stop Dumbledore's progress by gripping his arm, she might have misjudged slightly in grabbing his injured one but it certainly got his attention.

'Can we for a moment stop pretending that you actually want to know how I'm doing or that you actually care whether or not Ron and Daphne are happy again? You want to know about Harry; maybe you want to know what we know about stopping Voldemort. Heck, maybe you even want to help but you're not going to get answers by tiptoeing around and asking a hundred different questions that have nothing to do with what you really want to know.'

'You misunderstand me,' Dumbledore protested. 'I merely-'

'I don't want to hear it. We have office hours, sir, you can make an appointment with Harry or any other member of the ADADA you want to pretend to care about. Or you could actually sit down and talk to Harry, tell him everything you know, everything you've hidden from him because he wasn't ready. Everything you know that could help him win this war. That's your choice.'

She left him to think on that and turned back to retrace their steps and go back to her original destination of the grounds and Hagrid's cabin. She could only hope, for Dumbledore's sake, that he heeded her advice.

He didn't, and he would come to regret not heeding Stephanie's advice but not yet. After Stephanie had turned her back on him he had retreated to his office to think. Fawkes' perch was empty and he missed the companionship he could provide but he had not seen his pet phoenix for some time and he didn't think he would return any time soon. Much like Stephanie's advice the reason for Fawkes' absence would not occur until it was too late.

Dumbledore gazed over steeped fingers into his fireplace and thought long and hard about the choices he had made regarding Harry Potter. He had always felt that taking Harry to stay with the Dursley's, that keeping him from the magical world was for his own protection. That keeping him from the truth of his past, from the horrors that happened to him at such a young age, would ensure that Harry had the strength of love to fight.

It had never occurred to him that he might be wrong, that there were better ways to protect Harry, ways that would have helped him, prepared him for the battle he would face. He wondered at the wisdom of keeping the prophecy from Harry, of constantly feeding him small bits of information in the hopes that he would leave well enough alone and learn to enjoy his time in the magical world, develop friends and love and an understanding of what it was he was fighting for.

It never occurred to Dumbledore that Harry would not know what it meant to be loved, that he would have so much of his father in him that he would want to fight from the get go.

Was Stephanie right? Lifting his dead hand he studied the ring on his shrivelled finger. Was it worth the risk keeping everyone in the dark? Working on his own had left him injured and dying. His arrogance, his certainty that he was in the right, that he could resist its pull had very nearly been the death of him. If it had not been for Snape and his quick actions upon his return to Hogwarts, Dumbledore would have lost more than the use of his hand.

He could not allow Harry this burden, it was his job to fight Voldemort but that did not mean that Dumbledore couldn't pave the way and make sure that there were no obstacles in the Gryffindor's path. No he would not leave this task to Harry, not something as dangerous as this.

No, it would be Dumbledore that hunted down the horcruxes; there was no need for Harry to learn the horrific truth of Voldemort's attempts to run from death. That was a darkness no one so young should have to face.

He would never know that as he sat contemplating the difficult task ahead the last surviving Malfoy was stomping through Knockturn Alley on the trail of Mundungus Fletcher and a missing locket that had once been owned by Salazar Slytherin. He would never know the strength of those children he was so desperate to protect. He would never get to see a Hogwarts where the houses were truly united, where Slytherin's and Gryffindor's coexisted, were friends.

He would never get to see that world he fought so long and hard to create. But for now he would sit at his desk and plan, plan for a way to bring down Voldemort, plan for that world free of the Dark Lord's influence.


	16. Chapter 16

**a/n: **Once again i would like to thank all of my wonderful reviewers, you always make my day!

**Chapter 16**

When Potter had first come to him requesting that he let a few people into his dead aunts' vault he'd understandably been suspicious. From the way he understood it, they'd had Bellatrix as a prisoner for months. Why, in all of that time, could they not use her to get into her own vault? Potter had been cagey and Draco had refused. Weeks passed and Draco forgot all about the strange request as he was being given more and more to do in order to prove his worth – and his loyalty – to the ADADA.

Potter hadn't forgotten, and if Draco had really been paying attention, he'd have realised that all of the added tasks, all of the time spent with Ginny was a way of earning his trust. It was about trusting him in return.

The second time Potter approached him, asking to be let inside his aunt's vault he'd come armed with Granger and some pretty horrifying information. At first Draco hadn't wanted to believe him, surely no one could fear death so much they would willingly tear their soul into pieces? Then he had considered the source of the information and a whole line of questions formed in his mind.

Why was Potter sharing this information? Draco doubted he had earned enough of Potter's trust that he would willingly entrust this information to a Slytherin who had once been very close to Voldemort's inner circle. Draco knew he wouldn't pass on the information but it was a little depressing to think that he'd come so far in the other direction that Potter was willing to share it.

Still suspicious, he had arranged a time to visit the vault and Potter and Granger had tagged along. Nothing he'd done could have prepared him for what happened on that trip. It wasn't until they set foot in that vault that Draco really decided which side he was on.

Getting past the dragon had been frightening enough, once they entered the vault and started looking round things just got worse.

'What are we even looking for?' Draco had demanded. 'How do we know what these things even look like?'

'It'll be something that belonged to someone important,' Granger had informed him – as though that really even answered his question. As clarifications go it left something to be desired.

'Oh yes, that makes it all so clear,' he'd snidely snapped.

Sounding somewhat exasperated Potter had just told him to, 'Look for anything that might have belonged to one of the four founders of Hogwarts. Dumbledore seems to think it'll be some sort of trophy that he's corrupted.' Potter seemed to consider something. 'The man needs to see a shrink,' he'd added quietly.

'Voldemort or Dumbledore?' Draco had asked him earning an appreciative snort of laughter from Potter.

Naturally, Granger had been the one to find it. Perched high up on a leaning tower of gold and other objects of worth his dearly departed aunt had felt the need to hide away. She'd made the mistake of attempting to summon it and all hell had broken loose. Buried alive by replica cups had not exactly been on his list of likely ways to die. It didn't even make his list of unlikely, but the instant her spell had hit the cup the thing had sprouted dozens more just like it.

Draco had leapt forward to snatch the original from its perch before they could lose it and ended up causing an avalanche of gold and trinkets. To say it hurt would be an understatement, he was fairly certain he would forever have the Black family crest imprinted into his thigh after he'd landed particularly hard on an old shield.

A hand had reached down through the wall of junk and seized hold of the front of his very expensive dragon hide jacket. Quite suddenly he felt the kind of heat you only expect to feel when you accidentally set yourself on fire – and he knew from taking classes with Longbottom how that felt – and the vault around him turned red with heat. Next thing he knew he was standing outside the vault and Potter was patting out a burgeoning fire on the leg of his muggle jeans.

Draco jerked his leg away to inspect the damage for himself and snarled angrily at his rescuer. 'What in the name of Merlin was that?'

'Replicator jinx,' Granger answered, inspecting a patch of her sleeve that looked to be smouldering. 'I don't advise going in there again until we've destroyed that thing.'

Draco shot them both a dirty look. 'Not that I was planning to anyway, but that wasn't what I was talking about, what the bloody hell was that fire?'

'Oh that was me,' Potter had answered smugly. 'I'm sort of awesome.'

And that had been the total of his experience with horcruxes until Ginny had told him they thought they'd located the locket that had once belonged to Slytherin. Given that they still hadn't found a way to destroy the one horcrux they did have his very sarcastic response to Ginny's demand to accompany him to the old Black home had been, 'Yay!'

And then the only clue he'd found suggested someone else had beaten them to it. As much as he liked to think they were getting closer to defeating Voldemort – and wasn't that a surprising thought? – he couldn't help feeling that all of these little setbacks were signs that this wasn't going to work.

In the end, finding Mundungus turned out to be quite easy, Potter had tasked Dobby with finding the thief and not two hours later the two had appeared with a sharp crack in the middle of the ADADA offices. Dung hadn't been exactly thrilled after what he deemed was a kidnapping but he'd been even less thrilled when it turned out he'd sold an important piece of Hogwarts history for far less than he could have if he'd known its true origins.

Ginny had thwacked him over the head for that one and demanded to know whom the locket had been sold too.

'Alright, alright,' Dung warded her off by raising his hands. 'I sold it to that Umbridge woman.'

'Ugh,' Ginny recoiled, the very notion apparently too horrendous to even contemplate.

'Who is this Umbridge woman?' Draco asked. Being wholly unfamiliar with the name he figured she couldn't have been particularly important in the wizarding community if his father had never even mentioned her once.

'She's a horrible woman,' Ginny told him, 'A little while ago she tried to push through laws on "half-breeds", she wanted to take away the few rights werewolves have managed to hold onto. She treats anyone she doesn't see as totally human as little more than a slug. She's absolutely vile.' Ginny seemed to consider something. 'Does this mean I can kill her?'

'Doubtful, I don't see Potter letting you kill some woman just because she has a thing against werewolves. Half the magical community has a thing against werewolves.'

Ginny rounded on him, seeming to swell up to twice her usual height. Draco immediately regretted saying anything and had to strongly resist the urge to compare her to her mother – he'd heard quite enough about Molly Weasley to make the comparison.

'Oh bugger off,' Draco rolled his eyes. 'You know its true, don't go yelling at me because I said it.'

Ginny shot him one last glare but couldn't actually argue with him, he did after all have an excellent point. 'Well are we going to get this woman or not?'

'Sure,' Draco responded amiably. 'Just as soon as you tell me where it is we're going.'

The glare he got in return for that remark had him once again questioning why he had to be the paired with Ginny Weasley. The girl was about as likely to kill him as she was to find the horcrux, he didn't especially like his chances if they couldn't find the necklace bloody Dung had sold on.

It didn't actually take them all that long to find out where Delores Umbridge could be found. A quick check with a Ministry contact Ginny had cultivated told them the woman wasn't in her office at the Ministry but she had been very helpful in providing a home address. It upset the way Draco had always viewed the world when he witnessed the connections the people in the ADADA had made while trying to fight Voldemort. Some of the friends Granger had made would have had his father weeping with envy. He wasn't actually sure whether he found the concept amusing or frightening.

Arriving at Umbridge's home, Draco felt the need to re-evaluate his definition of the word frightening. The small cottage was pink. The outside was painted a pale pink, there were flowers growing in the garden – and they were pink. Breaking in to the house was almost a relief from all of the cuteness dripping from the façade of the house.

Inside was only worse. Kittens looked down at him from photographs, from paintings, even from a number of decorative plates. He swallowed the lump in his throat; mightily fighting the urge to vomit all over the adorable little fuzz balls. Draco had no idea how anyone could live in such a place. The constant meowing of the images was enough to give you a headache. Two minutes in the place and he already wanted to smash every single one of the decorative plates and slash the paintings to ribbons.

Judging by the look of disgust on Ginny's face, she was resisting the same urge. And he had it on good authority that she was quite the cat person.

Umbridge wasn't home. Not that he really thought that would have stopped them from breaking into her house. She didn't even have any wards up; she was practically inviting people to simply wander on into her home. It was a wonder Dung hadn't been by to raid her silverware collection. Although, it might have had something to do with the cats engraved on the set. He didn't quite see anyone wanting to pay that much for silverware that glared at you while you ate.

'Do you think its here?' Ginny asked him, opening and closing all of the drawers in Umbridge's bedroom. Draco had already decided he wasn't going to touch those drawers with a ten-foot wand. He moved to the window where he had a good view of the front door and kept watch as Ginny ransacked the bedroom. Judging by the increasingly forceful way she was closing the drawers, Draco didn't need to turn to know that she wasn't finding what they were looking for.

'She must be wearing it,' Ginny concluded after they'd searched the entire house and come up with nothing but a new fear of cat related decorations.

'Did your contact at the Ministry know where she was?'

Ginny shook her head, 'Just that she was off work today.'

'Great.' That spelled long hours of watching her house, waiting for her to come home.

Ginny found them a place just beyond the property line and they settled in for long hours of staring at nothing.

* * *

When she'd suggested they use Grimmauld Place as a refuge for the young werewolves she hadn't considered the logistics of such an offer. That didn't mean she didn't believe it was the best place for them. Sirius, at least, had been perfectly happy to put the miserable old House of Black to good use and she'd spent the better part of a week working tirelessly with Remus and Molly to prepare the house to be overrun by werewolf cubs.

They'd cleaned out seven bedrooms and filled them with comfortable beds with a small supply of clothes and the necessities that any kid could need. The kitchen was well stocked and all of the windows actually opened to let fresh air in. Now that they had a real purpose for the house, Molly and Tonks dove into creating a home and not just somewhere the Order could meet. There were still some rooms that needed cleaning out, like the ones Malfoy and Ginny had been digging through earlier, but they both felt the house was finally becoming something more like a home.

She hoped the young werewolves would see it that way.

Of the thirteen werewolves they had taken from Voldemort's den, not one of them had a family to go home to. It wasn't something Tonks had been expecting, frankly she'd been surprised Voldemort had even had to kill some of their parents, she'd assumed they were all children who had been abandoned by their families when they'd received the bite. It was a pleasant surprise to find that some of the children had once had parents who had fought to save them.

It was never going to be easy, but if anyone could help these children it was Molly Weasley and Remus Lupin. Molly could give them the mothering they needed and Remus could show them that not all werewolves were hated and shunned.

They took a portkey from St Mungo's; it was the easiest way to transport all thirteen werewolves, Molly, Tonks and Remus in one trip. They'd even arranged the portkey through the proper department instead of just making one and breaking a number of magical laws. They all agreed that if they wanted to make something of this home for werewolves then they would need to go about it the right way. And that meant making sure all of the paperwork was filed, even if they filed that paperwork with friends at the Ministry to keep it away from the likes of Dolores Umbridge.

It just went to show how bad things were getting that Tonks wasn't too worried, was in fact hopeful, that Umbridge would give Ginny and Malfoy an excuse to harm her.

The reactions the kids gave when they arrived in one of the more spacious living rooms wasn't exactly winning but Tonks didn't feel they had any real room to complain. She'd seen the house they'd been living in before, Grimmauld Place looked like a palace in comparison. It was just a matter of helping the kids passed their bitterness and their fear and showing them that they could have a home here, that they could be safe and cared for and that one day, if the Order and Harry's ADADA had anything to say about it, they would be able to live happy normal lives.

Of course, trying to convince a kid that going to school was a happy occurrence might prove slightly difficult. Tonks felt that if anyone were up to the challenge it was Molly Weasley. Maybe should could convince her mother to help out?

'Come, let me show you where you'll be sleeping.' Molly herded the kids out of the living room and up the stairs; she didn't say a word when she had to step over the body of a pixie on the landing.

Even if they were reluctant about it, Tonks could see the interest in their faces when Molly showed them their rooms, the big beds they would have all to themselves and the bathrooms they would only have to share with one other. The clean clothes, the shoes and pyjamas, the toiletries that would give them the freedom to actually be clean when they chose, all of it was swaying them toward giving Molly and Remus a chance.

They left the kids to settle in after giving them a proper tour of the house and all of the places that were safe to go and those that hadn't yet been properly cleared. They left them with instructions that they were free to move about the house but that if they wanted to go out – whether it be just the backyard or the corner shop – they would need to take someone with them. Not because they didn't trust them but because Voldemort had Death Eaters watching the house and even if they couldn't get in, they could certainly kill or capture anyone who got caught outside.

The three adults left them talking quietly in their rooms and went down to the kitchen to start preparing dinner. Molly wanted to go all out and give the kids a nice "welcome to your new home" feast. Tonks was kindly told to stay out of her way so she resigned herself to sitting at the table and watching as Molly ordered Remus about.

She might have been watching Remus more than Molly but she didn't think anyone would hold that against her. She had made no secret of her interest in her cousin's best friend and she just wondered whether he would ever get the courage to do something about her interest.

It was obvious that he didn't see what she saw when she looked at him. He couldn't see beyond the wolf, the curse that left him looking older than his years, the one that left him without steady employment and feared by a large part of the wizarding community. He saw a man too old and too broken to give any woman what she deserved.

Tonks saw it differently.

Tonks saw a good man who would do anything for the people he loved. She saw a man who, despite the hardships fate had seen to offer him, worked tirelessly to help other people, strangers who often shunned him in spite of his help. She saw a handsome man who could still find reason to smile when so many others would be curled in a ball and sobbing.

She saw a man worthy of love, of the family he felt he didn't deserve. She saw a man that could love her just as much in return if he would just let himself see the good in himself.

Molly's hand squeezed her shoulder gently, offering a warm supportive smile as she passed. Apparently her emotions were written all over her face for the world to see. Well, not Remus, he appeared to remain oblivious. Making a decision, Tonks sat up straighter, turned her hair and attractive shade of pink, and made her eyes a bright blue.

'We should go out,' she announced to the room at large, though Molly was wise enough to understand the invitation didn't include her.

'Go where?' Remus asked distractedly, all of his focus seemed to be on dicing vegetables just right.

Tonks rolled her eyes. 'You and I are going on a date,' she clarified, causing his grip on the knife to slip and a shallow cut to appear on his finger rather than the intended carrot.

'W-what?'

'Dinner,' Tonks informed him. 'We will go to a nice restaurant where we will eat nice food and have a nice time with each other. There may be snogging if it goes well.'

Remus went pink. 'I don't, we shouldn't -'

This time it was Molly who rolled her eyes. 'Oh Remus, take the girl out to dinner.'

Tonks didn't have long to gloat over his reluctant nod because there was a loud crash upstairs and one of the girls started screaming. A beat later someone started swearing. Against her better judgement and any real desire for familiarity, Tonks recognised the second voice.

'Draco!' she shouted, dashing up the stairs in alarm, not even stopping to wonder whether she was concerned for him or that he was causing some problems with the new werewolves.

It turned out to be a bit of both. When she hit the landing, wand in hand and with Remus just a step behind her, they found all of the werewolves clustered around the doorway of the living room they'd portkeyed into earlier. Draco was still swearing inside but now Tonks could hear giggling along with it. It sounded like Ginny and Draco were back from their watch.

Pushing through the crowd of gawking werewolves, Tonks got her first good look at the room. Draco was bleeding from a cut to his head; one hand clenched tightly around his wand while the other pinned a pink fuzzy woman to a chair. Ginny was sitting in a chair clutching her sides and giggling uncontrollably. The look on her face suggested she wasn't enjoying her experience and Remus quickly cancelled the jinx before she lost the ability to breathe.

Tonks conjured ropes to tie Umbridge to the chair and then Draco reached forward to tear the locket from around her neck. The instant his hand closed around the locket, he grimaced, a shudder travelling through him at the chill of the magic. Tonks couldn't imagine it was pleasant touching something so evil, something that was part of the darkest wizard the wizarding world had seen in millennia.

'Potter found a way to destroy these things yet?' Draco demanded, unwilling to release the thing from his grasp until they had somewhere safe and secure to store it. Tonks thought Harry and Ally were the only ones who had any idea where the cup was stored and she couldn't say that was a bad thing.

'I'll send for Harry,' Remus murmured, edging out of the room and ushering the werewolves down to the kitchen with him.

'What should we do with her?' Tonks didn't know how involved Umbridge was with Voldemort's plans but she assumed that the woman had no idea what it was she had been carrying around, she didn't think Voldemort would have left it with her had he known she was wearing it.

'We can't kill her,' Draco replied.

'Unfortunately,' Ginny wheezed.

Ignoring her Draco continued, 'She didn't know what she had, she's a cranky old bitch but she wasn't complicit.'

'Good.' Tonks jumped at the sound of Harry's voice from right behind her, not having heard him come up the stairs. 'Dose her with a truth potion, find out everything she knows then send her home with her memory wiped and the fake locket.'

Draco nodded; it looked like the irritation he felt at taking orders from Harry was finally fading. She doubted they would ever be friends but she could see that they respected each other enough not to get in each other's way. That was all Tonks felt they could ask for.

'How many of these things are still out there?'

'Too many,' Harry replied sounding tired. 'Too many.'


	17. Chapter 17

a/n: I have only just recovered from working Christmas in retail, a chapter update seemed like a nice way to celebrate. Happy new year, everyone! Thank you for all of your wonderful support over the years and your continuous reviews that brighten my days.

**Chapter 17**

Christmas sort of snuck up on Harry. One minute he was worrying about being around for Molly's birthday and the next he was panicking because he didn't have a gift for Ally.

Not that you'd have noticed with the way he was completely ignoring the holiday in favour of throwing everything he had at trying to solve the mystery of how to destroy a horcrux. The dining room table wasn't laden with Christmas dinner; it wasn't set for all of Harry's family and friends to come and enjoy each other's company. It was instead covered with books, potions, spell ingredients and randomly pockmarked with quite a few burns where things didn't quite go as planned.

It was hardly the rowdy Christmas Eve dinner of last year.

Harry wasn't too worried about the table and Ally wasn't too worried about him missing Christmas. Defeating Voldemort was far more important than having the perfect Christmas dinner that their daughter wouldn't even remember.

'I know they don't like to talk about them,' Hermione grunted in frustration, her wild hair piled atop her head in a failing attempt to keep it out of her way. 'But would it have killed them to tell us how to destroy them?'

'Yes,' Snape responded simply, not bothering to expand on that. Judging by the sour look Hermione shot him in response she understood what he was saying, that didn't mean she had to like it.

'How did Dumbledore destroy the ring?' Harry wanted to know. None of the memories Stephanie had copied gave them any clue as to how to destroy the things. It seemed to be a bit of an oversight on Dumbledore's behalf. If, as Harry suspected, Dumbledore had intended to teach him about the horcruxes in a slow and steady way, why not include something about how to destroy them? There was not a single memory stored in Dumbledore's office that shed light on just how he had managed to destroy that first horcrux.

'I don't know,' Snape admitted. 'He has never shared details of his plans with me, nothing that I didn't need to know anyway.'

Harry was amazed that Snape could say that without sounding bitter. He didn't think he managed to get two words out about the "plans" Dumbledore had for him without them dripping with bitterness. How Snape managed to still sound okay about it all after sixteen years was beyond Harry's ability to explain.

'How do we find out?' Lupin asked, poking through the glass phials they were using to store Dumbledore's memories. Hermione's tidy handwriting numbered each and on a roll of parchment she'd written down a brief description of each memory and an approximate date the memory was from. If the memory wasn't Dumbledore's but one he himself had copied that was also noted.

Hermione's efficiency was a little intimidating sometimes.

'I think you're going to have to ask,' Hermione admitted.

Harry pulled a face at that. He'd taken great pleasure in not signing up to stay on for Christmas because he knew Dumbledore had been hoping to corner him over Christmas dinner. He did feel a little bad for Malfoy – not that he'd ever admit it – because he'd been the only one with a reasonable excuse to stay behind. Harry doubted it would take Dumbledore very long to realise that the animosity that had once existed between Harry and the Slytherin had been set aside in favour of bringing down Voldemort.

Harry fully expected Dumbledore to track down Malfoy and try to pry a few details out of him. Poor Dumbledore wasn't to know that Malfoy had some of the best occlumency shields Snape had ever seen. Bellatrix may have been crazy but she had loved her nephew and done all that she could, in her twisted view, to protect him.

He was going to owe Malfoy when school started up again next term, of that he was sure.

'I don't think that's such a good idea,' Snape contradicted. 'We really don't need Dumbledore knowing that we've been walking through his office and stealing all of his things.'

'Borrowing,' Hermione corrected, keen to point out the significance of the term. To be fair to her they hadn't actually permanently removed anything from the headmaster's office, they'd simply copied it or borrowed it and put it back before he noticed it was missing. In theory, at least, if he'd noticed anything missing he hadn't outright come and accused them of raiding his office.

'What do you suggest we do?' Lupin was honestly curious, much like Harry and Malfoy, much of the animosity between Lupin and Snape had been set aside in order to better focus on destroying Voldemort.

Snape didn't have an answer. Anyone else and he would feel confidant just looking into their mind but Dumbledore was just as accomplished at occlumency as Snape was and even if Snape managed to somehow get through his shields he was confident that Dumbledore would still feel the intrusion and demand answers before Snape could make a hasty exit.

'There are a few more things we could try,' Hermione suggested, although she didn't sound particularly hopeful.

'Yeah,' Harry's response was equally lacking in enthusiasm. 'Like what?'

Snape's sudden hiss of pain distracted them. He tugged up the sleeve of his robes to reveal the dark black Dark Mark burned into his forearm. 'I have to go.'

They only nodded to say they understood, they'd learned not to make a big deal of his being summoned by Voldemort, it only served to make it harder to sit back and know that whatever was about to happen, a large part of it was completely out of their control. Snape would get them word when he could if this was Voldemort orchestrating an attack. If it turned out to be just another meeting then Snape would let them know what happened on his own time.

'I should go too,' Lupin admitted, 'I have a date.'

Harry grinned, smile so wide he was doing a fair impression of the Cheshire cat. 'You've a date?' he repeated with delight. 'With Tonks?'

'Sometimes you really are just exactly like your father,' Lupin bemoaned. 'Yes, I have a date with Dora.'

'Good for you,' Hermione smiled, none of the smug grin and all the genuine affection Harry's smugness was hiding.

'Thank you, Hermione.'

When it was just Hermione and Harry at the table, Harry leant back and tossed his wand down in frustration. They had been through so many texts; the entire Hogwarts library had been searched, the Martin library had been turned upside down and Hermione and Lupin had been making a good job of searching through Ruby's basement library. Nothing they had come across had given them even a hint of how they could go about destroying Voldemort's horcruxes.

Why would they not include something as important as the destruction of such a devastating object in a book that extolled the horror they could contain? Did they not think that by explaining what they were that someone might also look to destroy them? Harry seriously doubted that everyone who opened one of the books they'd found on horcruxes was looking to make them. Surely there couldn't be that many people out there willing to tear their very souls just to stay out of Death's clutches.

'I think we should call it a night,' Hermione advised, marking her page in a tiny green book that's cover was made of dragon hide. 'Can you take me home?'

Harry agreed and got to his feet to wait while she gathered up the things she wanted to take home with her. He was happy to see that she didn't take any books with her. It seemed that even Hermione could take the night off for Christmas.

'Are you coming to dinner tomorrow?' Harry wanted to know, only just remembering the request Ally had sent his way to remember to invite Hermione and her family. It had been a busy week and he supposed his invitation was better late than never.

Hermione seemed to consider the question, a slight smile about her lips. 'You were supposed to ask me weeks ago, weren't you?'

'There's a distinct possibility that's true,' Harry agreed. 'So Ally actually asked you then?'

'Ginny actually issued the invitation,' Hermione admitted. 'She seemed to think you would forget and that Ally was too busy to remind you herself.'

Harry had to admit it was true, given how he'd pretty much forgotten about Christmas this year it did entirely seem in the realm of possibility that Ginny had taken it upon herself to make sure all of the appropriate people had been given invites.

'You'll be here, then? With your parents?' The last time Harry had seen Hermione's parents was all the way back at the end of the year when they'd been at King's Cross waiting to pick her up. He hadn't spoken to them since perhaps before his second year had even started at Hogwarts. It had never occurred to Harry to ask about Hermione's parents, about how they were coping with the wizarding world or if they were having trouble reckoning their brainy quiet child with the confident and proficient witch who had returned home to them.

It actually worried Harry, how little time Hermione seemed to be spending with her parents now that she was part of the magical world. The idea that he might have been making time to go and see Aunt Petunia and Dudley when she wasn't even able to see her parents was not a comfortable one. He wasn't exactly sure how to go about breaching the topic either; perhaps he should speak to Ginny about it. That seemed like something she would be good at.

'We'll be here,' she confirmed, reaching out to take is arm. Flame travel was the only way she managed to get about because, unlike the rest of the ADADA, she refused to apparate without a licence. Apparently she didn't trust anyone but a trained professional to teach her and as she wasn't going to be taking her test until March – despite already being seventeen – she insisted on apparating only in emergencies.

Jesse had laughed and told her it was cute that she was nervous about apparating until someone gave her a piece of parchment that said she could. That hadn't gone down especially well with Hermione but Ron and Harry had both gotten a laugh out of that.

After he'd left her on the doorstep of her house (and not inside like he'd done the last time, scaring the life out of her when he'd accidentally left a mark on the carpet) he decided to stop by and see what Dudley was up to.

Dudley and his aunt weren't home, it turned out, and Harry wasn't about to talk to his uncle but it didn't turn out to be a bad thing. As he was standing on the street out front of his aunt's house a glowing silver doe came cantering toward him, its ghostly feet making no sound on the road. Snape's voice issued from the patronus' mouth, low and ominous the words had Harry setting his jaw.

'Orders to capture and execute Alastair Moody,' Snape warned, voice issuing from the open mouth of the patronus. 'More deaths to come.'

The doe faded away after delivering its message but Harry didn't wait around to see it go. He arrived in the ADADA offices seconds later, issuing orders without even bothering to check who was around. Not a day had gone by since they began using these offices that they were completely empty. There was always at least one person on watch even in the horrible early hours of the morning.

Being just shy of seven o'clock the room was far from empty. At his orders, Emmy and Fred leapt to their feet, eyes seeking the maps on the wall seeking out Moody's location. Luna dropped something into a drawer, snatched her wand off her desk and hurried across the room. Jesse, who had been standing on the training mats, merely raised a hand to Harry's shoulder. Within moments, Fred was calling out a location and everyone was placing their hands on Harry.

It wasn't easy acting as a flaming taxi but it was a lot quicker than running for the Honeydukes tunnel.

The scene they arrived on was complete chaos. People were screaming, normally inanimate objects were attacking people in wizarding robes and muggle attire alike. Harry wasn't sure which way he should be looking. Trust Moody to set half of his house on his attackers. It was just a pity that half of the people Moody had set his furniture on were innocent muggle's that had come to investigate the ruckus he'd made when the Death Eater's came calling.

On the one hand it was nice to know that Moody had such caring neighbours but on the other they'd walked right into a mess that was going to take half of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to clean up.

Emmy and Fred snatched their hands from Harry's shoulder and darted into the frenzy of screaming muggle's to see what they could do. Transfiguration had never been Emmy's strong suit but Fred had quite the knack when he put his mind to it. Harry left them to it and followed Luna and Jesse into the house to see about finding old Mad-Eye.

Moody's small house was strangely quiet, it seemed that all of his furniture had charged outside to start the fight that reminded Harry of that scene from _Beauty and the Beast _that had frightened Lydia the first time she'd seen it.

'Mad-Eye!' Harry called out, unconcerned about giving away his position to any Death Eaters. 'Alastair!' he called out again when no one responded.

They split up, Harry continued further into the house toward the stairs while Luna went left and Jesse went right. The sounds of the fight outside were muffled in the house, only the occasional thud as someone hit a wall or a big boom as a forceful spell slammed into something or someone.

Luna's shriek tore through the quiet of the house just as Harry was peering into the last room on the top floor. He moved quickly, jumping down the staircase in one graceful leap and landing on the carpet in a crouch. Jesse tore out of a room on the right and they both charged down the hall toward the sound of Luna's whimpers.

Harry felt his legs go wobbly beneath him and he had to reach out a hand to steady himself on the doorframe. Behind him, Jesse let out a horrified sound of aguish. Luna was crumpled on the floor, wand casually tossed aside as she cradled Mad-Eye Moody's head in her lap. Blood poured from his nose and his cheek where his eye socket had been shattered, bone poking up through the skin.

His legs twitched helplessly, his body convulsing. He was already dead. Whatever spell had finally taken him down it had left his body twitchy with a horrifying imitation of life.

The idea, just the idea, that someone, that anyone, could take down Alastair Moody was unfathomable.

Without being aware of it, Harry began to burn. Jesse noticed it first and took a hasty couple of steps away from him lest he get accidentally set on fire. The uneven floorboards beneath Harry's feet blackened and his clothing started to smoke. The smell of burning cotton had Luna looking up at him with her nose wrinkled.

'You're on fire, Harry,' she told him quietly and when he didn't respond Jesse cautiously leant forward and poked Harry's shoulder with the tip of his wand. He and Luna exchanged worried glances, unsure how to handle an unresponsive Harry.

'Potter,' Jesse tried again but it was the appearance of another silver, doe shaped patronus that finally jerked his attention away from the lifeless form of Moody.

'Xenophilius Lovegood. Arabella Fig. Amelia Bones. Fleur Delacour.' Snape's voices sounded urgent and Harry knew they had little time. They couldn't be in four places at once, they were going to have to choose and hope that help reached the others quickly. Fred and Emmy would have to handle things here.

'Take Mrs Fig,' Harry ordered Luna, his tone leaving her no chance to argue. He would not let her father see her fall and he knew she would be a liability when it came to her father. He also knew that Xenophilius Lovegood was a lot stronger and a hell of a lot smarter than anyone gave him credit for. He sent Jesse after her father instead. He was going to take it on faith that Madam Bones would make for a very difficult target and went after Fleur.

Harry didn't believe for an instant that the Weasley's would let Fleur come to harm but he couldn't forgive himself either, if he didn't go to her and make sure of her safety himself.

He just hoped he was making the right choice.


	18. Chapter 18

**a/n: **Recently i have been struck by the writing bug and it will shock you greatly to know that the next two chapters are already written. I know! It honestly surprised me too, this story will be updated once a week for the next 12 to 13 weeks until it is finished. Thanks everyone for the reviews, and i'd like to make a mention of the most difficult question (suggestion?) given in a review: why don't they use time turners? i thought long and hard about this, about the consequences of using time travel and of why its not to be trifled with and then i thought, you know what? Let's not take the easy route because it would no doubt blow up in their faces anyway.

**WARNING! This is not a nice chapter, violence, death and destruction follows, read at your own risk.**

**Chapter 18**

Harry really shouldn't have been surprised to find that Fleur was doing alright on her own. Although to say she was alone might have been stretching it. A quick trip to visit the Burrow had revealed that Fleur was working late on something for Gringott's and when Harry finally tracked her down he'd found her fighting side by side with a pair of goblins.

Seeing that she had everything well in hand – and not missing the four dead Death Eaters at her feet – Harry continued on to Madam Bones' without even bothering to speak a word to Fleur.

Amelia Bones didn't seem to need his help either. When he arrived at her small little home on the outskirts of London he found the front door had been blown in and the body of a Death Eater sprawled on the rug in the hall. Following the trail of destruction, Harry found Madam Bones slumped in an armchair, glass of fire whiskey in hand and her slippered feet propped up on an old steamer trunk she was evidently using as a coffee table.

'There's three more in the kitchen,' she told him, the slight shake of her voice betraying just how spooked she'd been by the whole experience. 'I've already sent for the Department.'

Harry simply nodded, the adrenalin pumping through his body made it incredibly difficult to sit still and he felt as though there was still something coming. Something big that none of them were prepared for.

The shot of fire whiskey Madam Bones offered him helped still his nerves and he was able to calm down long enough to think things through a bit more rationally. 'Weird list of people to attack,' he murmured thoughtfully. 'Not hardly Voldemort's usual style.'

Madam Bones grunted something that might have been agreement and then clambered to her feet to meet the team of wizards that had just arrived to deal with the mess in her kitchen and front hall. 'Oh and there's another body in the loo,' she added as an afterthought.

Harry merely raised a questioning brow. Now that the adrenalin had worn off he could appreciate the skill Madam Bones had displayed in defending her home against five Death Eaters. He also had to wonder how it was they'd gotten through the wards at both her home and Moody's.

Which was of course when the last of Snape's messages came through. He only had two words to deliver this time but they hit Harry harder than anything else he'd yet to pass on.

'St Mungo's,' came Snape's terrified voice. Harry had never before heard his teacher's voice sound so heavy with fear.

Harry's whole body went rigid with horror, Madam Bones sucked in a gasp. This was what had been behind the other attacks. It had nothing to do with the actual people on the list – not that Voldemort didn't have good reason to want members of the Order dead – no this was about distracting them, taking them down and drawing their attention elsewhere while they targeted something as significant, as important to the wizarding community, as St Mungo's hospital.

'Go!' Madam Bones barked at him sharply. 'I'll send everyone I can.'

Harry didn't need telling twice. Wand in hand, he flamed to the hospital, arriving in a defensive crouch in reception. Harry's eyes and ears took in every detail he could but he refused to think about what it might mean until later, much later when he would properly have time to come to terms with it.

With a detachment necessary to stay on his feet, his eyes took in the broken glass, the blood smeared everywhere, the signs of spell work where chairs and walls were still sparkling with magic or burned to a blackened mess. He saw the family, still in their pyjamas that hadn't even had the time to move. Mother and father sitting slumped in chairs waiting to see a medi-wizard about the great big scaly tale their toddler had managed to grow. Their eyes were open and unseeing, a hollow gaze Harry had come to associate with the killing curse.

He saw the small boy slumped on his mother's lap; eyes closed in sleep as though he'd simply exhausted himself in all the excitement. Later Harry would take comfort in the knowledge that the little boy had died in his sleep, that he hadn't been forced to witness his parents' death as he had as a child.

There was a young apprentice healer slumped against the half open doors of the elevator. She had died with her wand still held tightly in her hand even as the other tried desperately to stop her organs from spilling out onto the floor. Harry felt bile burning up the back of his throat but he swallowed it back. He would not fail those still alive.

The screaming was almost worse. High, terrified screams, low keening sounds. Pleading voices. On top of it all there was laughter. Gleeful laughter that bounced around the halls and travelled the floors as though intentionally projected around the hospital to cause more fear and alarm.

There was no sound of emergency alarm. The normal monotonous drone of the emergency message wasn't playing. If he'd taken a closer look at the window front that lead out onto the street Harry would have seen the strange metallic shield that had sprung up all around the building. He might have noticed that no one had been able to get out.

He might have realised that no other help could get in.

Anger boiled up within Harry, anger so hot that even had he been trying to control it his power would have spilled over like an overfilled bathtub. Flames burned through him, scoring the floor beneath his boots black and burning through his clothes until all that remained were his dragon hide leather pants and boots. His t-shirt, his jumper and his socks, even his underwear crumbled away from his body as nothing but blackened ash. He kept walking as though he hadn't even noticed. Purposeful steps lead him out of the reception area and toward the emergency stairs. He didn't count the bodies he passed, knew there was no reason to check for signs of life. The ground floor was too quiet for that.

He didn't even notice the trail of red-hot flames he was leaving as he walked.

He came across the first Death Eater guarding the exit onto the first floor. He didn't slow his steps, he barely even noticed as the Death Eater hit him square in the chest with a concussor hex. Harry slashed his wand violently through the air, ripping the Death Eater's chest open as someone had done to the healer downstairs. Harry didn't give the Death Eater even the faint hope that he could hold his life in. His burning fist reached forward, seized the man's heart and squeezed until there was nothing but ash left to fall through his fingers.

Seemingly unaware of the blood now staining his hand, Harry continued further out onto the first floor. He didn't need much more than a quick look into the first few rooms to know that the Death Eater had been alone. There was no one left alive on the floor to put up a fight.

The second floor gave him much of the same. The Death Eater left guarding that floor had a friend but they both fell just as easily as the one on the floor below. As he shoved the lifeless body of Death Eater number two out of his way his eyes strayed across a stuffed green dragon that was splashed with blood. The teenager it belonged to was lying a few feet further down the hall.

Harry had experienced plenty of nightmares before but he would never ever be able to sleep comfortably after this.

There were survivors on the third floor. A number of them, Harry knew, wished that they had died along with their friends and families. He found six Death Eaters on the third floor, two were guarding the stairs, one was blocking the elevator, and another two were torturing people while the sixth seemed to be looking for something.

Harry used the killing curse on the one by the elevator, slammed his knife into the eye of one of the women guarding the stairs and punched his burning fist through the chest of the other. He'd never before had occasion to use his phoenix enhanced strength in such a way. He hoped he never would again.

The female Death Eater searching the floor for something put up more of a fight. She doggedly blocked or got out of the way of all of Harry's spells and made quick work of firing back her own. If her spells had any affect, Harry didn't feel it. Rage was fuelling his every step and he steadily moved closer and closer to the witch until finally she had no room to dodge his cutting curse. The spell Snape had taught him tore the woman to shreds, splattering him and half the hall with her blood.

One of the Death Eaters torturing people tried to run when he saw Harry coming. Harry cut him down with a spell that severed the tendons in his legs and hit him with the killing curse as he crumpled. The other fell to his knees and tried to beg. Harry barely blinked as he hit him with the Cruciatus Curse. Harry felt nothing as his howls filled the corridor. He hit him another three times before he killed him by snapping his neck.

When Harry turned to face the three men who'd been tortured two of them recoiled from him in fear. The third was too close to death to show any more fear.

'Please,' the man begged around broken lips. It looked like every bone in his body had been broken and blood covered the floor around him. 'P-p-ple-ea-se.'

With a heavy heart, Harry once more cast the killing curse. Was it, he wondered, the first time the curse had ever been used out of mercy? 'Hide,' he snapped at the other two men before turning on his heel and striding for the stairs. He still had two more floors to cover.

As soon as he rounded the corner in the stairwell he knew that the majority of the Death Eaters were camped out on the fourth floor and rather than rush right into that fight. He flame travelled up to the fifth and took out the single Death Eater guarding the stairs there. As he had been expecting, the visitors' tearoom and shop were empty of life.

There was a young witch slumped over the register in the shop and a number of others spread about the small room. People had died in their seats in the tearoom, food and blood mixed in helpless pools on the floor.

Harry was unaware of the tears streaming down his cheeks.

It was time to take out those on the fourth floor. Later Harry wouldn't recall how he had done it and it would take specialists from the Ministry weeks to put all of the pieces together.

The four men guarding the stairs seemed to know that something was wrong. They were on edge, quiet, eyes shifting all around searching for the source of the disturbance. Harry flamed directly into the middle of the little group. His wand and knife moved simultaneously as he spun, slashing a deep line into one man's throat beneath his mask and slamming the other with the killing curse. He didn't have time to play with these men.

Something red and sticky slammed into his side but he ignored it, throwing his knife into the chest of one of the two remaining men before slamming his palm flat against the chest of the other. He'd never cast the killing curse wandlessly before but he was running so hot with anger that the spell burned through the Death Eater all the same.

Something clawed at his wrist and he felt his grip go lax as his fingers went numb. His wand slipped from suddenly slack fingers but he didn't even stop to look. Fire surged from him, a great tunnel of flame like that from a dragon spun out into the hall catching many off guard. Harry snatched his knife from the fallen Death Eater's chest before he followed the lance of flames into the corridor. His right hand dangled limply from his wrist.

Someone was screaming but Harry couldn't make out which direction it was coming from or if the voice even belonged to a Death Eater. Something moved on his left and he spun, hand extended to block the attack, only to be met with the sharp edge of a blade. The knife tore through muscle before coming to rest in the bone of his left arm.

Harry's right arm came up automatically, hand still hanging uselessly but it didn't seem to matter. A spell shot from Harry's fingers, tearing through the hall with such force that it wasn't only the Death Eater that had struck him that was thrown aside.

He marched onward, following the throng of Death Eaters to a single room at the end of the corridor. His vision was nothing more than a haze of black and white as his hands and feet lashed out, body moving in ways that Alley had taught him all that time ago.

Those quiet days in her trunk seemed like decades ago now.

Something heavy slammed into his back and his knees hit the floor, without the use of his hands there was nothing to break his fall. Harry heard rather than felt his nose break as he hit the floor. Squinting his eyes came to focus on the form of a squat bookish man tied and bound in the corner. His mouth was moving but Harry had no idea what he was saying. Standing over him was a Death Eater. In front of the two men was a strange golden sphere set up on a tripod.

Harry didn't have a hope of understanding the writing scrawled across its surface but he didn't have time to worry about it now. He rolled as quickly as he could but not quick enough to escape the boot that slammed down into his middle.

Fire spread away from him, catching bedding and curtains alight. The Death Eater standing over him leapt back and Harry tried desperately to push himself to his feet. The flames continued to spread around him but the Death Eater had overcome his surprise and moved in again. He leaned down over Harry, wand poking into his stomach.

He might have whispered something in Harry's ear but the world was already fading to black.

The last thing Harry heard before the darkness claimed him was a hoarse voice screaming in agony. The last thing he felt was something red-hot tearing through his chest, seeming to burn his very soul.

And then the darkness finally claimed him.


	19. Chapter 19

**a/n: **As promised, weekly updates! We're reaching the home stretch now and i am on a roll, pumping out chapters faster than ever before. Thanks for all the support and reviews, i hope this answers some of yours questions and doesn't just give you a bunch more. Enjoy!

**Chapter 19**

It was an unfortunate truth that Harry Potter had woken up in the hospital wing at Hogwarts more times than he would care to admit. There was a certain familiarity to drifting awake to the sound of soft voices talking around him, of Madam Pomfrey puttering about talking in hushed tones to other students or administering healing draughts.

He couldn't say he'd ever woken up surrounded by such a cloud of fear and distress that it almost choked him. There was nothing particularly gradual about his waking up this time. He actually elicited a startled scream from Ginny when his eyes snapped open and he sat up on his elbows.

He licked his lips and frowned. 'Why does my mouth feel like I just licked a sandpit?'

The people surrounding his bed gaped at him in shock. Ginny's hand covered her mouth and her face was ghostly pale beneath her freckles. Hermione had tears streaming down her cheeks but it seemed as though they'd been there for a while because she wasn't trying to wipe them away. Ron and the twins were crowded at the foot of his bed, mouths gaping open and looking like he'd just sprouted a second head.

He hadn't had he? He didn't think so but seeing as he couldn't seem to remember why he was lying in a bed in the hospital wing it was entirely possible he'd been a willing participant in one of the twins experiments.

Although the soft sobbing coming from Molly Weasley and the tight grip her husband had on her shoulder suggested otherwise. On the next bed Sirius had apparently startled awake at his question and he and Ruby were looking at Harry in wonder.

But it was the way Ally was looking at him, the way her hands clutched desperately at his leg that said maybe something big had happened.

'What?'

The stillness lasted just a moment before Ally flew up out of her chair and tackled him back onto the bed, arms circling so tightly around him he suddenly became aware of a whole host of aches and pains he'd apparently been ignoring. He could feel hot tears trickling down his neck so he held in his desire to yelp in an unmanly fashion, choosing instead to wrap his arms around her, pulling her even closer.

'I'm okay,' he whispered into her hair, having no real idea if that were even true but he figured that if he was awake and able to sit up things couldn't be all bad.

'I was so scared,' she cried into his neck and the fact that he had never before seen her so distressed was worrying him even more. 'Don't you dare leave me!'

'I'm not going anywhere,' he assured her.

Seeming to remember where they were Ally released Harry and scrambled back off the bed and to her chair. If Harry thought being released from her overwhelmingly tight grip meant answers he was mistaken. Molly Weasley got him in a hug to rival Ally's and then Ginny almost knocked the air out of his lungs. Even Ron who wasn't overly prone to hugging anyone that wasn't Daphne squeezed him tightly for a few minutes longer than Harry thought was strictly necessary.

Once everyone had squished him to assure themselves he was alive and he was able to breathe freely – though a little painfully – Madam Pomfrey bustled over to check on him.

'You're lucky to be alive, Potter,' she grunted, not bothering to hide her displeasure at having him for a patient yet again. At least Harry knew her well enough to spot the genuine care and relief under her tone. 'Broken bones, a number of jinxes and curses, a bloody knife embedded in your arm!'

Harry had never, in all of his five and a half years at Hogwarts, seen Madam Pomfrey loose her composure but as she continued to list off all of the injuries he'd come in with he saw her hands start to shake. Now Harry was really worried about what happened and why he couldn't seem to remember anything.

'What happened to me?'

The people around his bed exchanged nervous, uncertain glances. It was Hermione who eventually spoke up. 'You don't remember?'

'Remember what?'

'Oh Harry,' Hermione started to cry again, big fat tears tumbling down her cheeks. 'St Mungo's is gone, Harry.'

'Gone?' he repeated, confused. 'What do you mean gone?'

But something about the way she'd said it had woken something in Harry, nothing specific but just a deep and overwhelming sense of dread. He struggled to remember the last thing he knew for sure before he'd woken up in the hospital wing. Thinking hard he could come up with talking with Snape about destroying horcruxes but everything after that was a bit on the fuzzy side. It was like a big black haze washed over him whenever he tried to think about anything after that.

The blackness made his stomach lurch and though he didn't really want to know, he _needed_ to know what had happened to him.

'Do you remember Snape giving us that list of people about to be attacked?' Fred asked quietly.

Concentrating he could just come up with two names. 'Madam Bones and Mrs Figg, right?'

'Arabella Figg is dead,' Sirius informed him, he didn't even try to soften the blow. 'Mad-Eye, too.'

Like a punch to the gut Harry remember walking into Moody's little house. He remembered the furniture acting out the scene from that Disney movie and finding Luna cradling the still twitching body of his friend and mentor. He had no memory of the death of his old cat-obsessed babysitter but he didn't know if that was his memory playing tricks on him or because he genuinely wasn't there.

'It was a distraction,' Harry remembered, the words coming slowly to him around his dry lips. Ally held a small cup up to his lips and helped him take slow sips. 'St Mungo's was the real target?'

They all nodded, concerned that he even had to ask the question. What in the name of Merlin had happened to him?

'It was awful,' Ginny croaked. 'We couldn't get in, there was some sort of ward around the whole building.'

'Like a big shimmering wall that we just bounced right off,' Ruby added, shuddering and rubbing at the ghost of an injury to her shoulder.

'There were about thirty of us,' Sirius picked up the story, 'Amelia called everyone she could but no matter what we did we couldn't get in.'

'Bill called in every curse breaker at Gringott's,' Arthur continued, 'He even got some of the goblins to help but nothing was going to bring that down.'

'Poor Dobby knocked himself unconscious just trying.' That point seemed to bother Ron more than the idea that the wizards couldn't get through.

Harry could see it in his mind, picture the way St Mungo's had looked that time he and Ally had stopped by. He could just imagine what it had looked like with thirty wizards pacing around the perimeter angry about being shut out and firing spell after spell just to try and bring it down. He imagined it had looked something like a tiger in a zoo pacing the sides of its cage.

'We don't even know how you got through,' Ally admitted. 'I bounced right off the ward same as everyone else.'

'And then it just fell away,' Ginny picked up the story again. 'But it was too late. Voldemort's Death Eater's killed everyone in that hospital.' Her voice cracked slightly when she added, 'There were so many kids.'

'Neville's parents were killed, as well.'

Harry was only vaguely aware of their words after that. The blackness was threatening to take over as they explained how they had moved from floor to floor, checking every body they came across for signs of life. He listened as Mrs Weasley's sobs got louder and George picked up the story. His vision went wobbly and his heart started to pound in his chest as he listened to them talking about securing the bodies of the Death Eaters, of coordinating the removal and care of all of those people murdered when they had thought they were safe.

'You sort of left us a trail to follow,' Sirius explained. 'The floor was burned where you had walked so we knew where you'd been. We found two survivors, just two people alive in that whole hospital.'

Bile was threatening to fill Harry's mouth, his ears were ringing and the blackness was wavering, letting images slip through, things Harry had seen, the things he had done.

'The papers are calling it a massacre,' Ally contributed. 'And after what I saw on the fourth floor I don't think you could call it anything else.'

At the words "fourth floor" Harry's hands clenched in the sheets and sweat broke out along his forehead. There was no need for Ally to elaborate, he could see in his mind the death he had discovered on the fourth floor. He remembered it like stills from a movie or muggle photographs.

'That's where we found you. We thought you were dead. You were on the floor, surrounded by burnt bodies and there was blood everywhere. I've never been so scared in my life.' It wasn't easy for Ally to admit to being scared but whatever she'd seen in that hospital had broken something in her. It had definitely broken something in Harry.

'How many?' he choked out. 'How many people died?' he demanded when nobody seemed willing to say.

'Four hundred and twelve,' Ron finally spoke. 'Eighty one of those were Death Eaters.'

The weight of the words, the weight of all of those lives lost because they weren't fast enough because they hadn't seen through Voldemort's plans, they pulled at Harry, threatening to drown him beneath their sorrow. He knew, deep down, that most of those people were dead before he even got to the hospital. That he had saved the only two people he could and that he had been responsible for so many Death Eater deaths but it wasn't enough.

It would never be enough.

'This ends now,' he snarled. 'I don't care if I have to speak with Dumbledore, we _will_ find a way to destroy those horcruxes and I _will_ kill Voldemort.'

For the first time in what Harry correctly assumed was days, Hermione actually smiled. 'About that,' she said sounding cautiously hopeful. 'Ron actually figured it out.'

'Figured what out?' Harry demanded tiredly, 'And how long have I been here?' He'd just noticed that the castle seemed a little too noisy to still be Christmas break.

'Almost two weeks,' Ginny explained. 'Everyone's been back for a few days now, McGonagall's been refusing to let anyone in here.'

'She even told Dumbledore off,' Fred added gleefully.

Now that he was awake and talking and not in any apparent danger the mood in the hospital wing seemed to be lightening. What happened at St Mungo's was a tragedy but the people surrounding his bed had had two weeks to get used to the idea. He doubted they'd ever get over it but they'd had long enough that they could push passed the pain in the face of getting things done.

'So what did Ron figure out?'

'It was so simple we'd all been overlooking it,' Hermione explained. 'Tom Riddle's diary was a horcrux.'

'And…?' Harry asked, wondering if this was somehow supposed to be news to him.

'You used a basilisk fang to destroy it.'

'You want to use a basilisk fang to destroy the horcruxes?' Harry sounded incredulous even to his own ears. The idea that they had all, quite literally, been sleeping above the answer to all of their problems was surreal.

'The venom actually,' Hermione corrected, 'and it does work, we tested it on the cup we recovered from Bellatrix's vault.'

Harry couldn't help feeling this all sounded a bit too easy. 'There's a "but" coming isn't there?'

'You killed that thing almost four years ago,' Ron explained. 'There was only enough venom left in the dried up husk to destroy one of the horcruxes.'

'Not to mention we still don't have them all.'

'No,' Harry agreed around a yawn. 'But it's a start.'

Conversation continued to flow around him but he was suddenly feeling very tired. Lying back in his bed he let the voices of his friends and family wash over him. He barely even noticed as his eyes drifted shut.

The next time he woke there was a different set of people sitting around his bed and Molly was sleeping peacefully snuggled up close to his side. Daphne was engaged in building a tower out of exploding snap cards on the table at the end of his bed and Stephanie had apparently brought along all of her homework because she was scrutinising a textbook and taking the occasional note on a roll of parchment. She was sucking thoughtfully on the end of her quill.

The atmosphere was vastly different than it had been the last time he woke and he could only attribute this to the fact that they weren't all worrying themselves over him like they had been before. Still it was nice not to wake up alone.

'How long was I asleep?' he wondered, startling Daphne into knocking a particularly vital card and sending the whole deck exploding outward over Harry's bed.

'Hey!' she scolded him playfully. 'Only a couple of hours, its about five o'clock.'

If she thought she was being helpful giving him the time she probably should have given him a day of the week and maybe even a date to go with it. Feeling horribly disoriented by the whole thing he pulled himself up in bed and rolled his eyes when Stephanie leaned over and fluffed his pillows. That didn't stop him from resting back against them now comfortably propped up where he could survey the rest of the hospital wing.

There were more beds set up than Harry had ever seen and a number of witches bustling about wearing uniforms Harry had never seen before. Some of the beds were even occupied by witches and wizards Harry didn't recognise.

As though reading his thoughts Daphne explained that the witches in uniform were apprentice healers from the academy (Harry didn't know there was an academy) and that the other patients were people who would have normally gone to St Mungo's.

'Anything really bad goes to the trauma centre they've set up off Diagon Alley,' she explained. 'Then they get portkeyed to a hospital in Paris. The Ministry has set up four of these hospital wards around the country, a lot of the older or richer families are volunteering whole wings of their homes.'

'Are they going to rebuild St Mungo's?' Harry asked.

'No,' Daphne said with a shake of her head. 'Its going to take them months to clean the place up but someone else has proposed a new home for the hospital.'

The way she said that last bit suggested she couldn't quite believe the rumours she'd been hearing and that when they'd turned out to be true it had left her even more sceptical.

'Where?' Curious now, Harry looked back and forth between Stephanie's incredulous grin and Daphne's amazed smile.

'Malfoy Manor.'

'Your joking?' exploded out of Harry before he could contain it.

Daphne shook her head. 'Perfectly serious, he said his family has always donated money to St Mungo's and he doesn't think that should stop now just because his parents were doing it for all the wrong reasons. He's going to keep staying with Andromeda and the Ministry is working to empty out the old Malfoy home and turn it into a proper hospital.'

'Some of the things Mr Weasley's team have found are really nasty,' Stephanie added.

Harry didn't know what to say. He had seen, of course, the changes that were occurring in Malfoy but it had never occurred to him that those changes could be so significant as to see the Slytherin give up his huge family home to build a new hospital.

'St Mungo's changed a lot of things,' Daphne said simply.

'Yes,' Harry said slowly, his thoughts circling back around the blackness of his memories. 'It really did.'


	20. Chapter 20

**a/n: **Thank you for all of the marvellous reviews! This chapter puts us just ten from the end so of course there is going to be a lot happening in the next chapters. Hope you enjoy this one and as always please feel free to leave your thoughts at the end.

**Chapter 20**

Harry was used to the way people whispered about him as he walked by. It had started his very first day at Hogwarts and though some of the glamour of being the Boy Who Lived had warn off there had still been plenty of things for the students to gossip about. He couldn't say his time at Hogwarts had ever been easy, he could even go so far as to say that he'd really set a bit of a standard in his first year when he went up against his Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher to protect the philosopher's stone.

He'd fought basilisks, dementors and bogarts; he'd survived the Tri-wizard tournament and come face to face with Voldemort three times before he was even a teenager. Harry was used to rumours and speculation and whispered conversations that quickly stopped when he walked into a room.

But nothing he had experienced before could compare to this.

Two days after he woke in the hospital wing he was back with the other students. Once he was awake and able to swallow some of Madam Pomfrey's horrible tasting potions, he'd healed quite quickly. All of the physical reminders that he had been at St Mungo's were gone. The emotional ones would last a lifetime, possibly even two given how long he could potentially live.

He was still having trouble piecing together exactly what had happened that night and the nightmares were horrible but they didn't stop Harry from wanting things to go back to normal. He just hadn't counted on someone at the _Daily Prophet _getting their hands on the entire sordid tale.

His plan was simple, slip back into his old schedule, going to classes, tutoring students and running the ADADA just as he had before. Maybe he wouldn't be going on any raids but given how quiet things had been since St Mungo's it didn't look like anyone would be doing more than a quiet slip-in-and-out any time soon. They couldn't afford to give Voldemort time to recover but it would take him time to find new witches as wizards who believed in his cause and that gave them some time to work with.

It would be especially difficult once the prospective Death Eater's read the morning news.

The morning had started out all right; he'd woken in his dormitory and if the jokes were a little stilted it was only because Neville was still dealing with the death of his parents. He'd walked down to breakfast with Ron, Hermione and Ginny and settled in at the end of the Gryffindor table where the ADADA always seemed to gather.

It had been pretty simple to block out the hushed voices that followed him down to breakfast and to ignore the sidelong glances people kept sending his way. But then the post arrived. Hermione sprayed a mouthful of juice across half the table when she unfurled her copy of the _Daily Prophet _and saw the headline practically launching itself of the front page.

_Boy Who Lived Slaughters Death Eaters at St Mungo's!_

Her shriek of outrage was drowned out by the sudden explosion of noise from the rest of the students and then slowly a hush fell over the entire hall. One by one heads turned, students craning in their seats to catch a glimpse of Harry. He felt his ears turning red and an angry hot feeling erupted in his chest. He refused to look up though; instead he kept his expression carefully blank and concentrated on chewing his bacon despite the fact that his mouth had suddenly gone bone dry.

In a whisper that seemed to carry all around the Great Hall, Hermione read aloud the article that explained in detail the new information they'd just uncovered. The article spoke of the ADADA and the Order's inability to get through the wards and the scene they'd stumbled across when the ward had eventually come down. It gave a detailed explanation of the number of people the Death Eater's had killed in the hospital and how Harry had torn through the building killing every last one of Voldemort's men responsible for the massacre.

The article didn't seem to know whether to call him a hero or a murderer. The men and women he had killed _were _Death Eater's willingly working for Voldemort but did that give Harry the right to kill them? The article was brutally honest, sparing no detail other than descriptions of the way in which the victims had died. It was well written and Hermione couldn't actually find a fault in it. It was only the fact that Harry's life had just been so publicly splashed across the page that had her angry.

The entire edition of the paper was one big critique of Harry and the St Mungo's Massacre.

It was designed to make the wizarding community aware of the true dangers of the Dark Arts but it never quite made it clear whether or not Harry should be considered one of the dangers.

What it guaranteed, however, was fear.

Harry's first class of the day was Potions. Although it had never been his favourite class it had become a lot more bearable since he'd come to understand Snape better and now that he was in his sixth year the class was considerably smaller. Not many people had achieved a high enough mark to continue into NEWTs and even some of the ones that had didn't want to put themselves through the stress.

Ron bitched regularly about it, complaining that when he'd studied like a mad man to pass the damn class he hadn't actually considered the fact that he'd then have to take it again. As far as Harry could tell there were only two reasons his best friend kept at it: Daphne and wanting to be an Auror.

The closer he got to the dungeons the happier Harry was that his potions class was so small. People were going out of their way to avoid him. It was like being in second year and having people think he was the Heir of Slytherin all over again. Only about a hundred times worse. This time, they actually had a reason to fear Harry; he had absolutely done everything the _Prophet _had accused him of. Students leapt aside as he approached, shrinking back against walls and avoiding eye contact.

Harry just let it all happen, he wasn't going to justify his actions, he didn't even remember all of them but he knew what he'd done and more importantly he knew why he'd done it. He'd killed before, always to protect people or to prevent something terrible from occurring. He didn't regret a single thing he had done that night and he wasn't about to let the students' fear get to him.

So he kept his head held high and made his way to Potions as though he couldn't see the way people were looking at him. The people he truly cared about, the ones whose opinions did matter to Harry, they weren't treating him any differently and that was all he needed to push through the heavy, fear-filled silence and carry on with his day.

It helped that Snape treated him with the exact same disdain he always had and Malfoy managed to get in a couple of well placed jibes that, if they hadn't annoyed Harry so much, would have made him smile.

Working in the ADADA offices during recess they all missed the signs of the tension in the air changing. If any of the other members of the ADADA noticed the strange bristling and bitter exchanges throughout their next classes they didn't mention it to Harry but by lunchtime it was obvious that something had occurred in the school since breakfast.

Harry didn't find out what it was until a fight broke out between four students right in front of the doors to the Great Hall at dinner. Both Creevey brothers had their wands out and were angrily exchanging words with a pair of fifth year Hufflepuffs. Coming down the stairs (freshly repaired and looking as though the Weasley twins had never accidentally blown them up), Harry couldn't hear what was being said but as he and Abby approached he watched as more and more students started to take sides.

By the time McGonagall, Snape and Flitwick arrived all of the students in the Entrance Hall had clearly divided themselves into two groups.

'You four with me,' McGonagall barked at the four students at the centre of the fight in her no nonsense tone. 'The rest of you, dinner is waiting.'

As all the students began to move off, many of them shooting dirty looks at students who had been on the opposing side of the argument, Harry made his way over to Snape and Flitwick who both had peculiar expressions on their faces.

'What was that all about?' Harry asked.

'You Mr Potter,' Flitwick squeaked. Harry's mouth fell open in surprise but it seemed Professor Flitwick wasn't finished. 'It seems the student body is quite divided on how to handle you. You have some very strong supporters in the Creevey brothers, Harry, be careful what you do with it.'

Harry's jaw snapped shut and he nodded his head, understanding that he wasn't being reprimanded only cautioned. Still, the idea that the other students were defending him blew his mind. After what he had seen that morning he thought for sure he was doomed to spend the rest of his days at Hogwarts as a pariah. It had never even occurred to him that some of the students would still want to fight alongside him, not outside of the ADADA anyway.

The rest of the week, the students of Hogwarts continued to prove him wrong. The number of students who sought tutoring from the ADADA increased and Harry noticed that a lot of students he had never before even spoken to were making it a point to smile or say hello when they passed in the corridor.

Oh there were still those who leapt out of his way and studied his every move with alarm but they were becoming fewer and fewer in number and the tide of students turned in Harry's favour. He didn't understand it but Hermione had ordered him to let it be.

'They got scared, Harry,' she'd told him the second day, of this strange behaviour after he'd wondered aloud what on earth had changed. 'St Mungo's really scared a lot of people and that article made it all very real again. Once they got over the shock I think they all realised that even though they'll never forget what you did they can't quite forget that the people you killed were the Death Eaters responsible for killing all of those patients and their families.

'You scare them to death, Harry, sometimes you scare me, but they look at you and they see hope. They see someone capable of stopping Voldemort, of finally putting and end to his reign of terror. You're the Boy Who Lived, Harry, you stopped him once and they believe you can do it again.'

Not really sure how to feel about frightening his friend or the fact that the wizarding world was relying on him to stop Voldemort, Harry went back to looking through the journal a second year Ravenclaw had given him. It amused Harry to no end to see that Ally's idea of keeping a journal of spells and the process of learning them had so pervaded life and learning at Hogwarts.

He'd almost died laughing the day Snape came to him, scowl on his face and a stack of journals under his arm. Although Snape had been livid at this added paperwork, he'd reluctantly admitted (to McGonagall only) that they were helping immensely to explain to his students where they were going wrong and why. The whole of the ADADA knew he got a perverse sort of joy out of writing comments in the margins in angry red ink.

Snape freely admitted that watching Hermione having to slog through the sections for History of Magic relieved some of the irritation. The sloppy potion making may have made the potions master cringe but it was nothing compared to the tedious nature of correcting a student's work in a subject that only six people had ever bothered to take seriously.

Madam Pince had actually created a new section in the library where she was steadily collecting the works of seventh year students who were only too happy to pass on their knowledge. She'd had to assign it to the reference section because the demand for them was startlingly high and she was getting tired of summoning them back then the due date passed by. It seemed everyone wanted a bit of inside help when it came to passing his or her NEWTs.

With everyone going about their own work, the ADADA offices had a calming affect on Harry. In these offices he'd made new friends, strengthened old friendships and discovered more about his friends and foes than in any other place. Where once the Gryffindor common room had felt like a home away from home now it was these rooms he sought when he wanted to relax.

While he lay sprawled on the couch going over journals, he could see Luna bent over her desk and frowning at a copy of the writing from the gold sphere that had been recovered from St Mungo's. He could look up from his book and see Emmy taking great pleasure in slamming Malfoy to the training mat or the way emerald green smoke was issuing out from the open door of the twins lab. He liked being able to watch Stephanie and Ron organise watches on the few remaining Death Eaters known to them or the way Jesse argued with Dung as they tried to come up with the best way of tracking down a live basilisk so they could extract the venom.

In the quiet moments like this he could remember why he was fighting so hard to defeat Voldemort.

'Harry,' Abby called to him, head poking around the door to the outer office where they met with students. 'You've got a visitor,' she explained when he looked up.

The strange way she said it should have been a clue but she was very good at keeping her facial expressions under wraps and it was only because he knew her so well that he could read the strange hint of uncertainty and irritation.

Slipping a piece of ribbon into the book to mark his place he tossed it aside and got to his feet. Sometimes he felt he should be a little stiff given how much he'd been through but Madam Pomfrey was no muggle doctor and all of her remedies worked quickly. Still, it would have been nice if he could spend some time bemoaning his aches and pains rather than just pushing on.

'Who is it?' he asked when he reached the door but rather than answer she simply pushed the door open further.

Harry's eyes widened in surprise and it was on autopilot that he let Abby close the door behind him as she made her escape and he slipped into the chair behind the desk. He'd never expected Dumbledore to come to him.


	21. Chapter 21

**a/n: **Thank you for all of the supportive reviews! They always make me smile and sometimes do embarrassing happy dances in public places. I hope you enjoy this one and again please leave me your thoughts.

**Chapter 21**

Once, Harry could remember listening to Dumbledore speak with something like awe. Oh he had always agreed that the headmaster was a little bit mad, just as Percy had confirmed at his very first Hogwarts feast, but he had always firmly believed that Dumbledore was a great man who deserved respect and admiration.

He'd still believed that after the horror of his second year and even more firmly so after his third year when he had helped them free Sirius and Buckbeak. Sometimes, Harry had to wonder if he had changed or if Ally had changed him. Had his perception of the old headmaster changed so much because of Ally or had he noticed the flaws in the man he had once so highly respected because, for the first time, he had another perspective?

Harry would like to believe that he would have come to view Dumbledore in the same way even if he had not met Ally until later. He couldn't comprehend how manipulative Dumbledore would have been had Harry not taken a stand of his own. It wasn't something he wanted to waste his time thinking about but sitting in the ADADA student office with Dumbledore just across the desk there were a lot of thoughts tumbling through Harry's mind that seemed to have come to a head.

Dumbledore didn't seem to notice the silence or the distraction of Harry's thoughts. He was watching him with such a thirst that Harry only then realised that the old man had truly been worried. His eyes roved over him, checking for scratches, wounds, any sign of what might have landed him in the Hospital Wing for two weeks.

McGonagall had clearly done a good job of keeping the headmaster in check. The way he was looking at Harry, the absolute relief at seeing him alive and unharmed could only mean that he honestly hadn't managed to get in to see Harry while he was unconscious.

It was Harry who finally broke the silence, it had been a long time since the two had last spoken and it had been even longer since they had spoken with complete honesty. Actually Harry couldn't be sure Dumbledore had ever been completely honest with him. There had always been secrets that Dumbledore held back, things he hadn't felt Harry was ready for.

There were still things he was holding back. If it had been up to Dumbledore Harry doubted he'd yet have any idea what a horcrux was or how to go about finding them let alone destroying them. He felt that was significant information that he could have been using for months to fight back against Voldemort, perhaps even years.

'I don't really remember what happened,' Harry began, 'if that's what you wanted to know.'

'It is,' Dumbledore conceded, 'but it is not all I wish to know.'

'Do you remember when I asked you about my mother when I was in my very first year here and you told me that I wasn't ready to know the answer?' Harry asked.

'I do,' Dumbledore acknowledge with a nod of his head. 'And I stand by what I said, you were not ready to know at the age of eleven that there was a prophecy about you and that it was the reason for Voldemort coming after you.'

'Did you think I'd blame myself for my parents death or just spend the rest of the summer brooding over my fate?' Harry wanted to know. Then he changed his mind when Dumbledore opened his mouth to explain. 'No, don't answer that, its done. Let's just look at it this way, you can ask but I can't guarantee I'll answer.'

That didn't seem to please Dumbledore but he also seemed to recognise that his own words and advice were being used against him. His first question was an interesting one, one Harry hadn't actually been expecting. Sometimes, with the way they all grumped about him, they forgot that he truly was a brilliant wizard.

'You stole a horcrux from the vault of Bellatrix Lestrange, did you not?'

'Hermione and I went with Malfoy when he visited his aunts vault,' Harry conceded. 'There was concern about what curses she might have left behind and he wanted a little extra muscle.'

Not a lie, exactly, but it wasn't the answer Dumbledore was looking for.

'Harry,' the headmaster sighed, looking older and more tired than Harry had ever seen him. 'If you know something, anything that might help me uncover what Voldemort has done, you must tell me.'

'Why?' It wasn't the first time Dumbledore had said something like that and it wasn't the first time Harry had ever questioned it but it was the first time he felt he might get an honest answer or at least an answer. 'Why is it so important you know when I'm the one supposed to kill him?'

'Because I don't want you to have to make that choice, Harry, there are things you don't know, things you don't understand about Voldemort and what I suspect he has done.'

It wasn't like Harry had been very patient to begin with but he was quickly losing what little he'd come prepared with. 'These things I don't know and understand are things you are refusing to tell me. You show me a single memory to give me something to think about and then you wonder why I ask questions, why I seek answers elsewhere?'

'Harry,' Dumbledore began but Harry cut him off.

'I've known about horcruxes since the beginning of last summer,' Harry informed the headmaster. 'I inadvertently walked right in on one of Voldemort's darkest secrets and though I only caught a glimpse, it was enough to get one word.'

'Horcrux,' Dumbledore correctly guessed.

'It took us months to figure out what one was, months in which you've had the answer but were too afraid to share it. Do you know, I almost feel sorry for you,' Harry said, suddenly changing tracks. You've become so secretive, so sure that what you are doing is too much for others to handle, that you have become nothing but a lonely old man. Tell me, sir, is there anyone you trust?'

Dumbledore's eyes widened ever so slightly and he once again made to protest or speak in his defence but Harry wasn't finished.

'I have spent years putting together a team I can trust, I have trained with these people, shared my secrets with these people, I have trusted them to have my back when the worst is occurring. These are the people I call friends, professor, people who I know will never tell my secrets and share my same desire to save the wizarding world. Some of them I would never have thought could be trusted but they have worked to earn my trust just as I've had to work to earn theirs.

'Right now, sir, I trust Draco Malfoy more than I trust you. At least I know where I stand with him.'

Mercifully, there was a knock on the outer door so Harry didn't have to sit there for one more minute considering the look he'd just left on Dumbledore's face. He couldn't have looked more surprised if Harry had actually leant across the desk and slapped him. As tempting as that idea was Harry did have some restraint.

'I'm sorry, Professor Dumbledore, that'll be Abby's next appointment.' As polite as possible, Harry rose from his chair and motioned toward the door. Dumbledore hesitated but Harry closed off his expression, making it very clear they were done and that if Dumbledore wanted to get some answers he was sure as hell going to have to give some first.

The poor first year Hufflepuff on the other side of the door let out a startled squeak when Dumbledore pulled open the door and swept out, robes fluttering behind him in a very dramatic fashion.

'Don't mind him,' Harry said cheerfully, 'He just didn't get the news he was hoping for.' And he motioned the girl inside before closing the door lightly behind her. 'Won't be a sec, I'll just grab Abby.'

Barely had the door closed behind Abby before Hermione was taking him by the arm and tugging him over to Luna's desk. 'I think I've figured out what this does although why Voldemort had it I'll never know. I'm not even sure how he knew it existed.'

Harry just sort of looked at her blankly, waiting for her to realise that she'd started that conversation seemingly half way through and that he had no idea what she was talking about having only just entered the room.

'The gold sphere from the hospital!' she exclaimed excitedly. 'Luna and I have figured out where it came from and how Voldemort got it.'

'Just not why he'd have thought to look for it in the first place,' Harry supplied the last of her explanation.

'Exactly!' she told him brightly. 'You remember that cave with all of the old Department of Mysteries workers? The one with all of the weird traps and the most fascinating collection of research and books?'

'Yes,' Harry confirmed slowly, still not quite following.

'Well that,' she jabbed a finger at the copy of the writing Luna was pouring over, 'was described in one of the texts we found. Voldemort must have looked for it after he got into that cave.'

'The curse breakers at Gringott's found it a hundred years ago,' Luna supplied. 'They handed if over to the Ministry but they didn't have any idea what it was so they put it in some museum to gather dust.'

'Sounds about right,' Harry nodded. 'So Voldemort found some reference to it and went looking for it. My question is why? What's it supposed to do that he wanted it so badly?'

'Exactly what it did,' Hermione said in a suddenly quiet voice. 'It created an impenetrable ward around St Mungo's that no one, no magic, could get through. I think it was supposed to stop _you _Harry.'

'But it didn't,' he said, 'I went straight in just as I always do.'

'I know,' Hermione agreed. 'But Ally couldn't get in, whatever allowed you to get in is special about you.'

'And you've no idea what?' Harry guessed.

'Not a clue,' Hermione replied sounding far too cheerful for such a statement. 'But we're going to find out.'

Research was something Hermione understood and, much like the manner in which she'd tackled the search for a way to destroy horcruxes, she was going to tackle this with a great deal of enthusiasm even in the face of frustration. It was good to see that despite all she had been through, a little of the bookworm he'd first met was still able to break free now and again.

Harry didn't make it back to the couch and his journals before Emmy and Stephanie walked up to him and looped their arms through his. 'Can we borrow you?' Emmy asked.

'I suppose so, where are we going?'

Stephanie pointed to a place on the map and Harry closed his eyes and tried to picture it in his mind. 'That is where Horace Slughorn lives,' Stephanie explained as they waited for Harry to fix the location in his mind. He was a lot less likely to burn them if he had a good idea of where they were going before he tried to leave.

'The old potions master?'

'The very same,' Emmy confirmed. 'He's been hiding out all over the country, constantly on the move but we finally managed to track him down.'

'Let me guess, we're going to see if we can't pry the uncorrupted memory from him.'

Although most of the memories they had copied from Dumbledore's collection had been straight forward, the one Slughorn had provided had obviously been tampered with. As the memory as it was didn't tell them anything more than they already knew its corruption hadn't been something they were too worried about. Now that the destruction of the horcruxes seemed a very real possibility they were once again eager to get a look at the true moment from all those years ago.

They arrived just in time to see the house Slughorn was staying in go up in flames, the roof seeming to leap free of the walls. All three of them were knocked backward by the force of the blow but they were on their feet an instant later.

'Ow!' Stephanie complained, rubbing her elbow. 'Guess we're right on time, then.'

It was the first fight Harry had been in since the incident at St Mungo's and if either Emmy or Stephanie hesitated, chancing glances at him, he didn't notice. He was already striding around the house, following the sounds of shouts and spell fire.

An older, portly man who must have been Slughorn seemed to have been caught sleeping if the striped pyjamas and slippers were anything to go by. He was being held by two burley Death Eaters that matched Crabbe and Goyle in stature while a third was interrogating him.

Harry cut down the third Death Eater without a word of warning as twin spells shot passed him on either side, knocking the other two out cold. Emmy and Stephanie hurried to restrain the two living Death Eaters while Harry stripped the one he had killed of his wand and his anonymity. He didn't recognise the face under the mask but someone at the Ministry would track down his relatives.

'You alright?' Harry asked Slughorn once he and the girls were sure they were alone and that there weren't anymore Death Eaters ready and waiting in the shadows.

'Perfectly fine,' Slughorn replied, straightening his pyjamas and his robe before bending to pick up his wand. With a casual wave of his wand the flames engulfing his home vanished and Harry was left looking at a perfectly ordinary house. The whole explosion and been an illusion, an attempt to fool the Death Eaters.

'Neat trick,' Harry commented. 'Do you know why we're here?'

'I'm guessing not just to save me from being captured and taken to You-Know-Who?' When Harry said nothing, Slughorn sighed and invited them inside.

There were only a few personal items in the house and a lot of things that certainly didn't belong to Slughorn. He appeared to be squatting in a muggle home.

'Did Dumbledore send you?' Slughorn demanded as he busied himself making tea.

'He doesn't know we're here,' Harry assured the old potions master. 'Though given what Sirius and Remus have told me about you, chances are he would have tried to send me eventually.'

Slughorn made a sound that might have been agreement but could just have easily been offense. Harry laid a glass phial on the table and looked Slughorn right in the eye. Slughorn's face twitched, betraying his nerves.

'It won't help you,' he sighed, sinking into a chair. 'It's far too late for that.'

Now, more than ever, Harry wanted to get a look at that memory. 'Let us be the judge of that.'

They stared at each other, neither willing to back down; Harry didn't even blink. Finally, after what felt like minutes had passed, Slughorn reached for the phial and uncorked it. Grabbing his wand, he placed the tip to his temple and drew it away, trailing a silvery smoke of memory behind. Directing it into the phial, he jammed the cork back into place and pushed it across the table to Harry.

'I'm so sorry for the part I played in this.'

Harry just nodded. They left without drinking any tea and it wasn't until they were back in the ADADA offices viewing the memory that they realised just how wrong Slughorn had been. His memory told them everything they needed to know.

Seven. There were only seven.


	22. Chapter 22

**a/n: **You support for this story continues to amaze me, thank you for all of the fantastic reviews! I hope you enjoy this chapter and please let me know what you think.

**Chapter 22**

Petunia Dursley was not having a good day. In fact she'd been having a lot of bad days lately. An unfortunate flurry of snow had stranded Dudley at home and Vernon hadn't been able to get safely onto the road for work. Maybe if it had just been her and Dudley stuck inside all day things wouldn't have been so bad. He'd gotten a lot better at thinking of others and she knew they could have spent a lovely day bonding while watching terrible soaps on telly and eating freshly baked pie for lunch.

But her husband was stuck home just as Dudley was and he seemed to think that it was the fault of Harry for landing them in such an awful little town where it snowed and people actually took days off for the weather. He'd spent the morning lounging about the house in an amiable mood, reading the last of yesterday's paper and watching a bit of the morning news.

Come lunchtime, however, his constant complaining was getting on everyone's nerves. Tempers were short and she'd already had to stop Dudley once from saying something he'd later regret.

Actually, she wasn't too sure on that but she figured it was safer for all if she just kept her two men apart. Lunch was eaten in relative silence, broken only by the occasional complaint from Vernon about the money he was loosing by sitting around all day. Petunia chose not to point out that she would have been perfectly capable of working if he didn't keep interrupting her every time she sat down to write her column.

Things came to a breaking point mid-afternoon when Dudley settled into the living room where his father was watching telly and purposefully unfolded that morning's _Daily Prophet_ which had a nice big photo on the front of a boy named Draco Malfoy looking very smug as he stood showing off a large manor that bore a proud sign declaring the place to be The Malfoy Institute for Magical Melodies and Injuries – The Malfoy Institute for short.

Petunia's lips pursed and she immediately glared at her son as she plotted a way to quickly remove the offending object from the living room before her husband noticed. It was a lot easier than squinting to read the article which would no doubt make mention of the massacre that had very nearly claimed the life of her nephew.

That had not been a good fortnight and it was at least partially responsible for the animosity that currently existed between her husband and son.

Petunia had just decided on a scurry and snatch technique when Vernon glance over at his son, doing a double take when he realised that Dudley was voluntarily reading a newspaper and then suffering whiplash when he realised what kind of paper he was reading.

'What is that THING doing in my house?' he bellowed, launching from his chair intent, no doubt, on grabbing the paper from Dudley's hands and throwing it in the fire.

'It came this morning,' Dudley said coolly, pulling the paper out of his father's reach. 'Poor owl needed an hour to recover before it could go back out in this weather.'

Vernon sputtered some incoherent nonsense and launched himself anew at his son, snatching the top of the paper and tugging until Dudley was forced to release it lest it tear.

'I thought I was clear, boy,' Vernon raged, 'this - this rubbish is not allowed in this house. We got rid of this claptrap when we got rid of that good-for-nothing boy. I WILL NOT HAVE THIS IN MY HOUSE!'

Fist scrunched tightly around the paper, Vernon made to lunge for Dudley once more but Dudley was quick on his feet these days and he darted easily out of his father's reach.

Petunia had finally had enough. 'Vernon!' she shouted in horror, 'Stop! No!'

'You gonna hit me, dad?' Dudley demanded. 'Go on then.'

'Dudley!' Petunia shrieked, outraged.

But Dudley had finally grown tired of his father's attitude. 'You think I care what you say, whether you want that stuff in this house? Its not even your house, dad, you really think Harry was going to let it be put in your name?'

Vernon's face went, if possible, and even darker shade of purple and he rounded on his wife, eyes wide and nostrils flaring. 'What is this rubbish?' he demanded.

Petunia was unable to speak, shrinking back in fright from her raging husband. Dudley had no such qualms, 'Do you even realise how much Harry has done for you?' he demanded. 'Do you even care?'

'That boy was nothing but a useless, parentless freak! A criminal!' Vernon snarled, chest heaving as he struggled to breathe. 'Kicking him out was the best thing I ever did!'

Dudley laughed. 'You didn't kick him out! He left! He's living in a bloody great house with more money than he knows what to do with. Kick him out?' Dudley laughed again.

Vernon lunged for his son again, hands outstretched, no doubt to wrap around Dudley's no longer ginormous neck, when flames erupted between them and Harry appeared quite suddenly, cheerful greeting ready to fall from his lips. Vernon's hands closed around Harry's neck and in the time it took Petunia to shriek Vernon was on the floor, knee pressed into his chest and a wand poking him under the chin.

Looking around him with narrow eyes, Harry demanded, 'What the bloody hell is going on here?'

Pushing off the wall on shaky legs Petunia approached him, hand gently taking his chin, she tilted his head to check for any marks her husband might have left. She was so glad (though not really surprised) to see there wasn't a mark on him. Dudley came up and put an arm around his mother's bony shoulders.

On the floor, Vernon was still struggling to breathe. Thinking he was pushing on something vital, Harry released the pressure of his knee and slowly got to his feet, wand held steadily on his uncle at all times. 'I don't suggest you move.'

'What happened?' Harry asked again, eyes going from his aunt to his cousin.

'The usual,' Dudley grumped, 'Dad saw something he didn't like and decided the best way to deal was to yell and rage.'

'You shouldn't have taunted him,' Petunia admonished, speaking as though her husband wasn't even in the room. Vernon wheezed something that might have been a protest or an attempt to defend his actions but Harry cast a silencing charm on him.

'He deserved it!' Dudley snarled. 'You can't just go hitting someone just because they're reading something you don't like.'

It was then that Harry spotted the copy of the wizarding newspaper on the floor. He couldn't help but agree with Petunia that it hadn't exactly been a great idea to provoke him. That still didn't excuse Vernon's behaviour.

'What do you want me to do with him?'

Petunia considered her words very carefully. 'Nothing, there's nothing you can do. Its up to me and I should have done this a long time ago.' She shrugged off her son's arm and marched to stand over her husband. 'Vernon,' she said sharply, 'I want a divorce.'

Harry and Dudley gaped at her, mouths hanging open in complete shock. On the floor Vernon raged silently, vein throbbing and moustache jiggling. Petunia wasn't finished.

'You have three days to pack your bags and get out. Dudley and I will be staying with Harry. Do not be here when we get home!'

Resolute in her new decision, Petunia stepped up beside Harry and gripped his arm tightly. Dudley hurriedly did the same and with one last look at Vernon Dursley, Harry flamed the two of them out of the house and back to his own. The moment Petunia released his arm, she burst into tears and likely would have fallen to the floor were it not for Dudley's quick reflexes.

'Oh my god,' she cried, 'what have I done?'

Dudley gently steered his mother into a sitting room and pushed her gently down onto the couch. Pip appeared suddenly at his elbow and he requested tea and something for the shock. He was only vaguely aware of Harry beside him.

'You did what you had to,' he soothed, still not quite able to believe what had just happened. 'You did the right thing, mum.'

It was with shaky hands that Petunia Dursley accepted the teacup that rested on top of a silver serving tray, balanced above the head of a house-elf. The shock was so great that she didn't even flinch at the sight.

Later, when his mother was settled into a guest room and Harry was getting ready to head back to Hogwarts, Dudley admitted it had indeed been a long time coming.

'She did the right thing,' Harry agreed, unable to believe that would be the last time he would ever have to see Vernon Dursley again.

* * *

While Dumbledore was down at dinner, Hermione and Ginny snuck into his office to steal the horcruxes he had in his possession. This time there was no way for Hermione to deny that what they were doing was in fact stealing but this was too important for her to get all worked up about it.

George had offered to try and work up some quick copies that would fool Dumbledore for at least a few hours after he picked up the fake but Harry had knocked the idea back claiming that he wasn't all that bothered about hiding this one from Dumbledore. Whatever had occurred between them in the ADADA student office it had finally pushed Harry into openly pushing Dumbledore's buttons.

Hermione could only imagine this blowing up in their faces later and she really, really hoped it didn't get her expelled. Ginny had offered to go it alone but Hermione was resolute that she needed to see Dumbledore's office for herself, she kept hoping that there was something there that everyone else had simply missed.

Besides, as it stood she was the only member of the ADADA who hadn't broken into Dumbledore's office, it was beginning to feel like a rite of passage that she'd almost missed out on.

Ron had laughed when she'd told him and offered to take her then and there, 'You're not missing much,' he'd assured her. 'Maybe your butt going numb and a lot of boredom.'

Still, she hadn't been able to turn down this opportunity and it really was a good idea for her to have a look around. None of the other ADADA members were especially clever when it came to logic and books, there was a good chance she would see something the others had overlooked if only because she was so well-read that she was able to make a connection that the others would think random.

As it turned out, there really wasn't anything for her to find and it took Ginny all of two minutes to break through the spells guarding the objects that had once housed a piece of Voldemort's soul. With a disappointed sigh, Hermione allowed Ginny to cover her with the invisibility cloak and the two snuck out of Dumbledore's office the same way they'd come in – through the door.

Fifteen minutes later they were back in the ADADA offices gathered around Harry's (Stephanie's) desk. Laid out before them were all of the horcruxes they knew about. The cup, the diary and the ring (which had been a nightmare to get a hold of as Dumbledore hardly ever took it off) were lined up with the locket, which was sealed in a glass jar sitting at the end. They still hadn't been able to find any basilisk venom but Hermione had found that if they stuck the locket in a sealed and spelled jar then it didn't have the normal affect of making everyone irritable and cranky.

'Is this even going to work?' Harry asked, watching Ruby with curious eyes.

The Unspeakable had her wand out and was quickly reading through some notes she had made on a sheet of parchment. 'I have no idea,' she admitted. 'The Department of Mysteries has just as little information on horcruxes as everywhere else but they did have a spell that's supposed to track souls through the veil.'

'You can do that?' Hermione was surprised to hear that.

'Nope,' Ruby replied brightly. 'No magic we know of is capable of piercing the veil between life and death _but _Ally and I tweaked it a little and we think it will work to detect souls here. Of course we still don't know if it will actually work to detect _pieces_ of a soul but we don't exactly have anything to lose.'

And on that cheerful note, Ruby tucked away the sheet of parchment, rolled up her sleeves and motioned for Harry to open the jar and tip the locket onto the table. With a swift jabbing motion Ruby commanded, '_Anima revela!_'

At first nothing seemed to happen but then slowly, as she held her wand steadily pointed at the locket, the tip of her wand began to glow a sickly red. Slowly, so as not to lose her concentration and break the spell, Ruby moved the tip of her wand to point at the cup. As it was the last object they had destroyed she had hope that it would be the most likely to show what Sirius had dubbed "soul residue". The tip of her wand faded to orange and then flared red again when she moved it back to the locket.

'Brilliant,' Harry declared, reaching to put the locket back in the jar. As his hand crossed the path of Ruby's wand the tip flared scarlet and with a cry, Ruby dropped her wand onto the floor. The spell broke off but her wand started to smoke hopelessly, vibrating across the floor before it exploded, sending splinters of wood into all of their legs. Blisters were forming on her hand where her fingers and palm had gripped the wand.

She hardly noticed, like everyone else she was too busy staring at Harry in horror.

'Oh,' Hermione exclaimed suddenly, using the tone of voice Harry had come to recognise as her "I've just realised something brilliant" tone.

'What?' Harry demanded. 'It could mean anything! Its hardly like you've tested it before.'

'Oh we tested it,' Sirius said ominously, 'Rubes and I tested it dozens of times on people whose souls we knew were intact and even once on this poor bloke in Salem who had half his soul destroyed in a research accident at the American Ministry.'

'If someone got in the way of the spell it stopped working,' Ruby explained, quietly. 'It couldn't track two souls at once.'

Harry felt cold all over, the way they were all looking at him, eyes filled with pity, was not something he was prepared to handle. This just couldn't be happening; surely what they were suggesting couldn't be true. Surely it couldn't even be possible. Objects, they were supposed to be objects, not living things. But as he thought about it, Harry couldn't actually remember having read that anywhere. It had never said that the objects used had to be, well objects.

'You're a horcrux, Harry,' Hermione whispered, with tears in her eyes. 'You have a piece of Voldemort's soul inside you.'


	23. Chapter 23

**a/n: **A new chapter! Yay! Thanks for all of the wonderful reviews and the thoughtful ones that made me think.

**Chapter 23**

The destruction of horcruxes was vital in the fight against Voldemort. He knew this and he also knew that they had a way to go before they were even at the point where they could destroy all seven of Voldemort's horcruxes. He was not going to waste time worrying about what that might mean for him when there were things that needed to be done.

'Enough, Hermione!' Harry shouted, cutting off her nervous rambling about what this meant, what it could mean and how they were possibly going to overcome this new obstacle.

'But Harry -' but he cut her off again, he was done listening to her, he was done listening to all of them. It had been a week since they'd discovered he was harbouring a horcrux and all anyone had researched or thought about was how they were going to save Harry while destroying the piece of evil soul wedged in him.

He could put up with it from Ally, she'd told him in no uncertain terms that she was not about to let him die so if he even thought about trying to distract her she'd seal him in a bubble made from cushioning charms and lock him in a tower in some remote desert where no one would ever find him.

Her threat, he'd taken very seriously and he truly believed that if anyone could find the answer to this new problem it was her. So he let her stress and worry about it and he worried about all of the other things they needed to focus on. There were still more horcruxes to be found and destroyed, he was trying to look at his as just another one they'd been lucky enough to find.

He did not need people tiptoeing around him like he was about to drop dead. Or sprout evilness and kill them all. He'd been carrying this thing around his whole life and as far as he could tell the only thing it had done was give him the ability to speak parseltongue and a shooting pain whenever Voldemort got too close.

'Ally is looking into it,' he told his friend sternly. 'We need to focus on finding the last two.'

'Three,' Snape said coolly, 'I believe we still need to find three.'

'What?' Hermione squeaked. 'I thought he only made seven?'

Snape nodded, though he didn't look particularly pleased with what he was considering. 'I think we need to consider the very real possibility that he is unaware of the piece of his soul he left in Potter. I do not believe he would have so easily let you go on living if he knew a piece of his soul resided in you.'

'Yeah but wouldn't killing me just destroy that piece of his soul?'

'Only if he did not take steps to transfer it first.'

'He can do that?' Harry asked, horrified. He turned to Hermione. 'Can he do that?'

Hermione simply shrugged, what they actually knew about Horcruxes was not nearly enough. There were just so few people willing to talk about them and even less willing to write about them. After this was all over Harry was going to make Hermione write a book all about the destruction of horcruxes. The book would not make a single reference to the creation of them but he would have her fill as many pages as she could on how to destroy them.

Even if it was a slim volume he hoped that in the future, if someone ever tried something as horrific as Voldemort had done, then there would be help for those who needed it.

Of course, there was also a good chance Ally would still be around to provide answers. He wasn't going to even consider whether or not he would be around. He'd like to be, of course, but he was trying to be realistic and if it came down to it, between his life and destroying Voldemort, well there really was no question. Harry would do what he had always done; he would do what was necessary.

Harry shook his head to clear his thoughts. 'Look, let's just focus on finding the horcruxes we do know about. Have we narrowed down the choices for the Ravenclaw object?'

'Luna has some ideas,' Hermione admitted, causing Snape's lip to curl. The potions master still had trouble believing most of the stuff that came out of Luna's mouth, even after a good portion of it had proven useful.

'Excellent,' Harry cheered. 'You two get on that and I'll go to Quidditch practice.'

Happy to have an excuse to get away from Hermione's pitying looks, Harry almost skipped out of the ADADA offices and back up to Gryffindor tower. This was the first time Madam Pomfrey was letting him play Quidditch and even though it was just practice it still felt good to be doing something as simple as playing a sport he loved with friends.

His good mood saw him all the way up to his room and back down to the Entrance Hall, now in his Quidditch robes with his broom slung across his shoulders. He passed a few people who smiled and said hello and even a few who looked like they might be heading out to watch them practice.

Practice turned out to be exactly what he needed to clear his mind. He got properly dirty in all the muck and it was a bit of fun tossing the quaffle around and catching the snitch. For an hour he didn't have to think about Voldemort or horcruxes or the possibility that he would never see his daughter grow up and get to enjoy her own game of Quidditch. He just played the game. It helped that Alicia was a lot less fanatical about winning than Oliver had been. She, like Harry, loved to play the game. That's not to say they didn't like winning, just that Alicia didn't stress them all out and try to drown her sorrows.

His reprieve didn't last long but he hadn't really been expecting it to. He was still in the shower when Ron came looking for him with Daphne in tow. Harry stuck his head out from behind the shower curtain; hair sticking up more than it usually did, thick as it was with shampoo. Daphne had taken a seat on the ledge by the window and Ron was leaning next to her.

'Can't I shower in peace?' he grumbled, ducking back inside to rinse his hair.

'Snape's been called to another meeting,' Ron explained. 'Sounds like wherever they're going there won't be wards.'

'Guess I can forgive you then.' He shut off the taps and stuck his hand out of the curtain. 'Towel.'

A warm hand that could only belong to Daphne pressed his towel into his hand and a few minutes later he was dressed and ready to go stalk Voldemort. Thirty minutes later he was wondering why he'd even bothered to shower in the first place.

The three of them were lying on their fronts, slowly sinking into the mud as ahead of them in a field Voldemort was issuing orders to a select few of his Death Eaters. They were using some of Fred and George's extendable ears to try and hear what was being said but so far they hadn't gotten any closer to figuring out just why this meeting needed to take place in the middle of a muddy field in darkness.

'I'm not getting anything,' Ron grumbled, spitting out a mouthful of mud. 'I could be home in bed right now.'

'You're on prefect duty,' Daphne reminded him. 'You traded your last shift with Hermione so you could help Fred and George remember?'

Ron grumbled something that might have been a complaint about her even remembering that and shifted to try and get more comfortable. Mud squelched around him and Harry felt it oozing its way under his clothes.

'Is that Nagini with him?' Harry asked suddenly, lifting his old pair of omnioculars to try and get a better look. 'Weird place to take a snake.'

'That's the snake that almost killed dad, yeah?' Ron murmured. 'Think old Voldie'd notice if we killed her.' Ron looked over at him to share a grin but Harry had frozen. Mouth hanging open lenses trained on the large snake.

'I think I killed that snake,' he muttered under his breath, eyes trained with singular focus on the writhing body at Voldemort's feet.

Harry could remember perfectly the night he had awoken from a dream in which Nagini had been attacking Arthur Weasley. He could remember very clearly the feeling of fangs breaking skin and the thirst for violence. That whole experience he'd been aware of because he was inside Voldemort's head and that's where Voldemort had been at the time of the attack. It had essentially been like Voldemort was directing the attack from within Nagini's mind not just as though he were a passenger like Harry had been.

He'd been in Nagini's mind. Perhaps he had always been there.

'She's a fucking horcrux,' Harry muttered in disbelief. He punched Ron sharply in the arm, causing his best friend to yelp around a mouthful of mud.

'Ow!' he complained, 'Don't pull your punches or anything.'

Completely ignoring Ron's pained rubbing of his arm, Harry gestured sharply to Nagini. 'That is not an ordinary snake,' he hissed excitedly. '_That _is a horcrux!'

'You mean we actually get to kill it?' This thought seemed to brighten Ron up considerably.

'Yeah but how?' Harry wanted to know. 'I could have sworn I killed that snake when he attacked your father and yet there it is still looking alive and snakelike.'

'As apposed to froglike?' Daphne queried. Harry shot her a quelling look, now was not the time for her to borrow Ron's sense of humour.

'So we trap it and wait until we get some basilisk venom,' Ron said with an easy shrug. 'I'm all for breaking up this little party, someone has to pay for getting mud in places I didn't ever want mud to be, why not let it be old Voldy himself?'

'Ron,' Daphne said with such fond exasperation he automatically grinned at her. 'If we take Nagini he's going to know we know and we really don't want him knowing we know until we want him to know.'

Harry and Ron blinked at her.

'That was an overuse of the word "know" wasn't it?'

'Was cute, though.' Ron gave her his own fond look. Harry wanted to roll his eyes but he too couldn't help smiling at seeing his friend all goofy and in love.

Something was happening out in the field. Voldemort seemed to be pointing out something to his men because their eyes were following where his hands pointed and they were nodding. One by one the Death Eaters bowed to their Dark Lord and vanished until Voldemort was left standing in the middle of the field with Snape and his snake.

'What are they waiting for?' Ron wondered but his answer came almost immediately. A deep chill crept across the ground toward them, freezing Harry deep in his soul. Their breaths puffed out before them and all three of them looked up.

Dementors. Six of them were gliding toward Voldemort and Snape, coming, thankfully, from the opposite direction to where the trio were hiding. For another five minutes Voldemort issued orders to the dementors before he allowed Snape to leave and then, after one final word to the creepy soul-sucking creatures, he left.

They watched the dementors spread out and form a perimeter around the area Voldemort had been standing. They were obviously guarding something but not anything they could see. As far as they could tell there was nothing there to see, certainly nothing that needed guarding by dementors.

Harry and Daphne played a quick game of rock-paper-scissors to decide who was going to stay lying in the mud while the other sorted out a watch detail. Ron was suddenly grateful that he had prefect duty so he had a ready excuse why he shouldn't have to lie in the mud all night. Harry lost, of course, and grinning cheerfully, Daphne disappeared with Ron just moments behind her and Harry settled in for a long and boring night.

While Harry was getting comfortable in a patch of mud warmed by his own body, Ron was taking a nice relaxing shower trying to psych himself up to a night spent patrolling the castle. The last time he'd got stuck with this duty he'd spent the majority of his night going over his Transfiguration notes as he aimlessly wandered up and down random hallways. The only people who had been out were the students, teachers and house elves on duty protecting the castle.

It was always more than a little creepy to walk passed a suit of armour that nodded in greeting but McGonagall had assured them all that the armour would come in handy. Ron had assumed she meant for them to wear them not set them watching the front doors to the castle.

His patrol started out quiet enough, there were still plenty of students walking around using what time they had before curfew to get some study in and, Ron caught a glimpse of colour out of the corner of his eye, a quick snog behind not so closed doors. There were a few stragglers he had to move on but otherwise the students of Hogwarts were beginning to understand the importance of the curfew. Not because they felt it was a suitable time for them to go to bed but because curfew signified the time at which they had to go to their posts.

For most students this just meant being in their dormitories or their house common rooms but some nights it could mean settling in to a dark corner on the second floor, avoiding Myrtle and making sure no one tried to sneak in through the Chamber of Secrets.

Colin Creevey had that lucky job that night. He was lying on the window ledge staring up at the stars through the window, one of his legs hanging down and swinging back and forth, toes brushing the floor. Ron tapped his shoe lightly against Colin's as he walked passed. Colin raised a hand in greeting but otherwise didn't move. He was perfectly hidden from anyone trying to emerge from the bathroom but from any other direction he was easily spotted.

He had a few more interactions like that one; Hannah Abbott was settled in a corner behind a statue of Merlin at the base of the North Tower. That particular watch post had been made into a comfortable little study nest, Hannah was sitting cross-legged, highlighting important things in her History of Magic textbook with her wand.

Around midnight, Harry turned up, feet making squelching noises as he approached the seventh floor and the comforts of Gryffindor tower.

'Anything new?'

Harry shook his head. 'Nothing, just the creepy sentries when I left but George and Emmy are there now.'

He waved goodnight and Ron continued on his way. Time crawled on as he continued to prowl the castle; he was just five minutes from freedom and sleep when Snape finally returned to the castle. He swept in through the front doors; face set in his usual grim scowl and made a beeline for Ron where he'd been mounting the stairs to return to the ADADA offices.

'We have a problem,' Snape reported, moving quickly across the marble floor to meet Ron.

Which is, of course, when the wards around the castle fell and the castle shook like something huge had slammed into the side of it.

'I'll sound the alarm.'

Months earlier they'd run a drill, Ron just hoped that it had been enough. Snape's voice boomed through the castle ordering everyone to his or her posts and Ron turned to run. They were out of time. Voldemort was coming to them.


	24. Chapter 24

**a/n: **As you read this it is very likely i am writing the final chapter of this story. Its terrifying! Still, i'd love to hear your thoughts on this one, things are really heating up now.

**Chapter 24**

Hogwarts was a castle under siege. The wards may have fallen but others had sprung up in their place, shrinking the safe zone around Hogwarts so that Hagrid had been forced to move into the castle with Fang. When the initial attack had happened, when the giants had first used their brute strength to bring the wards crashing down, they had all run to get in position, those who could were moved to the evacuation points and everyone else had battened down to prepare.

That was seven days ago.

Seven long days of explosions that shook walls, spells and weapons volleying back and forth from the castle walls and the vast number of dark creatures and Death Eaters surrounding the school. The first few days had been tense; all of the students had been low on sleep and extremely on edge. They'd hardly left their posts, runners moving between them to pass messages and only leaving for food and quick naps.

By day four they'd had to relax a little. Cut off (for the most part) from the outside world, the students were crumbling without proper rest and meals. By day five McGonagall and Harry had started up classes again, trying to keep things as normal as possible. There were absences, of course, they couldn't relax all of their defences, but by day seven the change had a noticeably calming affect.

The occasional explosion of something being thrown at the wards made them flinch but for most of the students it was a simple matter of keeping their heads down and just pushing through.

Harry and the ADADA didn't have the luxury. There was a constant fear that this siege was just another distraction, just another diversionary tactic so they wouldn't see the real attack until it was too late.

It didn't help that Dumbledore was nowhere to be found. Anadina had reported he'd left the castle some time around midnight and he hadn't made it back before the original wards fell. As he had no way of getting through the new ones that McGonagall and the house elves had created he hadn't been seen in the castle. They could only hope that wherever he was he was working on something that could help them stop Voldemort once and for all.

On the upside, they had plenty of time to search the castle for possible relics of Ravenclaw. Of course, it also meant that anytime they wanted to leave the castle Harry had to play magical flaming taxi. It definitely limited who and how often they left the castle.

This particular trip was to pick up Ron and Hermione who had pulled watch on Voldemort's field. Over the last week Voldemort had returned to the field every day to supervise what looked to Harry like an archaeological dig. The muggle men Voldemort had spelled to do the work were meticulous in their task. It was like a refined version of Time Team. They still had no idea what Voldemort was looking for and with the dementors guarding the place day and night there was just no way for them to get close without having to alert the creepy guards to their presence.

When Harry appeared beside Hermione, his oldest friends were bickering quietly about ways they could get close enough to have a look. Ron was all for the old-fashioned distraction tactic but Hermione was insisting it would never work.

'They'll still know we've been there,' she insisted. 'Those muggles may be spelled but they'll still see everything we do and report it, even if they don't exactly want to.'

'And then there's the fact that Voldemort is here,' Harry murmured, voice soft with amusement.

'Yes,' Hermione agreed smartly, 'and then there's that.'

'And the stupid snake,' Ron added.

They'd done some research on the matter and from what they'd found (and covertly tried) they had yet to find anything that could actually permanently kill the snake.

'It's a pity I can't just kill her like I did the basilisk,' Harry mused. 'You'd think a dirty great sword could kill a small snake like that.'

'Oh my god!' exclaimed Hermione suddenly, her volume threatening to expose them. 'It's goblin made!' she hissed excitedly, hands gripping Harry's shirt tightly. 'Get me to Hogwarts,' she demanded, fisting her other hand around Ron's wrist. 'Now!' she almost shouted when he still hesitated.

He didn't hesitate any longer, apparently whatever she'd just realised was far more important than waiting another two minutes for the replacement team to arrive. When they arrived in the ADADA offices and Hermione actually explained her thinking, Harry could honestly say that what she'd realised was really damn important.

'The sword of Godric Gryffindor is goblin made,' Hermione explained to the members assembled in the offices. 'A blade like that takes on aspects that will make it stronger.' When they all looked at her blankly, she elaborated. 'When Harry killed the basilisk I believe it imbued the sword with the power of basilisk venom. We don't need an actual basilisk!' she cried happily. 'We just need the sword of Gryffindor.'

'Which is on display in Dumbledore's office,' Ginny happily concluded. 'Excellent, we destroy the locket, kill the snake and off Harry and we're done.'

Harry winced. 'Too soon, Gin, too soon.'

She apologised but it didn't seem that her comment had been much of a dampener on everyone's moods. The fact that they'd finally found something to destroy the remaining horcruxes could only be considered a win. They still had a bit of time before they would have to face up to Harry's imminent demise.

'We still don't know what the Ravenclaw artefact is,' Daphne reminded them. 'We my be able to destroy the locket – and Harry if we must – but we have to find the Ravenclaw one first.'

'Actually,' Stephanie spoke, 'I've had an idea about that.'

At least seven different voices all turned to look at her saying, 'What?'

'Well,' she reasoned, 'if you were going to hide something in Hogwarts that you didn't want anyone finding BUT that you wanted them to think was junk if they did come across it, where would you hide it?'

There were quite a few blank stares in response to that and Harry looked around at the others to see if any of them had an inkling what she was talking about.

'The come-and-go room, ' Dobby squeaked, making Hermione jump because she hadn't even realised he was there.

'What, the Room of Requirement?' Ron clarified and then added slowly, 'Oooohhhhh. That junk room that always pops up when you need a place to hide things!'

Daphne raised her eyebrow. 'What things have you been trying to hide?'

'Like I have any secrets from you,' Ron scoffed, causing Hermione's eyes to widen in surprise. Harry purposefully didn't notice because it was a lot easier for his friendship if he didn't notice the little signs that Hermione wasn't exactly over her crush on Ron. That and the fact that there were far more important things going on.

'Moving on,' Harry said on a laugh. 'Why don't you two check out the Room of Requirement using Ruby's spell?'

'Yes, that is exactly how I wanted to spend my night,' Daphne muttered.

At that moment something exploded on the wards directly outside the ADADA offices and they all tumbled to the floor. The unmistakable sound of masonry giving way heralded the destruction of the ward and swearing the group started running for the door. McGonagall's voice was already booming through the castle directing students back to their posts.

There was just one more ward between them and Voldemort's forces and this one hugged the outside of the building so closely that there would be no more trips to the greenhouses. Harry could only hope that everything Madam Pomfrey needed or that Professor Sprout wanted to save had already been removed.

He also didn't want to think about any students that may have been tapped on the outside when the ward came down. He would have time to think about them and mourn later; they were running out of time, they were going to have to start fighting back.

'We need to get ready,' he announced suddenly, coming to a quick conclusion. 'Tonight, we bring the final ward down, tonight, we take the fight to Voldemort's forces.'

Ron and Daphne skidded to a halt, both looking at him with understanding. Hermione was looking at him as though he were insane, which, let's face it, was entirely possible given the weight resting on his shoulders.

'Find that horcrux,' he sharply ordered Ron and Daphne before turning to Hermione. 'Ally and Remus are upstairs in Dumbledore's office trying to find something in his personal library that will help me. Help them.'

'What are you going to do?' Hermione lingered to ask, neither Daphne nor Ron had bothered to stay and find out.

'I am going to have everyone in this castle ready to fight back.'

Of course it was easier said than done. Harry may have spent almost a year training the students to prepare for something like this but that didn't mean that putting into practice something that filled the students with fear was anywhere near easy.

The first step was to actually devise a plan to put into action. They had come up with numerous different scenarios of just how Voldemort might eventually try to take the castle but all of the ones that involved a siege didn't seem to work with what he was thinking now. As soon as they took down that last ward there needed to be a team ready to take the rear of Voldemort's forces. Trapped in the castle there were four different sides the army of Death Eaters and dark creatures could attack from but by forming a ring around the castle or even funnels at the entrances they were exposing themselves to an attack from behind.

Voldemort would know they could use that to their advantage of course and for the most part Harry didn't think Voldemort actually saw the students as any kind of a threat, at least not to him in his all powerful glory. That was what they needed to use to their advantage, the fact that the only people in any real position to talk about just how much of a fight the students could put up were all either dead or in the hands of the Ministry. And Ally, Ruby and Sirius had spent a lot of time culling the Ministry of any lingering Voldemort supporters who had escaped last year's attack.

So how could they best use this to their advantage? How the hell was he supposed to organise all of their other allies to attack tonight when he was the only one who could move to and from the castle with any kind of freedom? He seriously doubted Ally would be drawn away from her research just to play flaming taxi.

Moving toward the Great Hall and the group of professors he knew he would find there Harry began to form the beginnings of a plan.

* * *

Ron paced back and forth before the wall to the Room of Requirement; fixing in his mind exactly which room he wanted to see. As soon as the door appeared, Daphne reached passed him and turned the knob, pushing the door open to peer into the room they were going to have to search for something that could very well be the size of a needle or a large car.

'This could take days,' Daphne murmured when she caught her first glimpse of the teetering towers and twisting aisles filled with millions of little things the occupants of Hogwarts had seen fit to hide.

'A thousand years of junk,' Ron confirmed heavily. 'It will definitely take days to search this properly.'

'We don't have days,' Daphne reminded him unnecessarily. 'Even with Ruby's spell how do we narrow it down?'

A slight crack announced the reappearance of Dobby the house elf. 'Is this helping, Master Ron?'

Ron looked down to see that Dobby was holding an old and rather worn wizards' hat out to him. It was the Sorting Hat, perhaps the only reliable relic in the entire school that was both a thousand years old and still capable of coherent thought. It was exactly the kind of thing they could use to help them narrow down their search.

Daphne clearly thought so too because she beamed at Dobby, bending to give him a swift kiss to the cheek before snatching the hat from his hands and ramming it onto Ron's head. Apparently he'd be wearing it while she performed the spell. He'd have been offended by the implication she didn't trust him to do the spell if he didn't already know that her spell work was much better than his. Blow stuff up, sure, he was great at that but his fine spells and charm work paled in comparison to hers. He was man enough to admit it.

'Ah, Ronald Weasley, still trying to prove yourself to your brothers?' the voice whispered into his ear, though it didn't actually wait for an answer. 'No, no, you've done quite well for yourself, haven't you?'

'Are you done?' Ron asked impatiently. 'We haven't got all day.'

If it were possible for a hat to huff indignantly then that would be exactly what the hat did. Still he directed Ron to walk deeper into the room, explaining that it was obvious the junk closer to the door was from the last two decades. The deeper they went the more Ron felt like Bill exploring some long forgotten Egyptian tomb.

'There better not be an ancient curse in the back there,' Ron muttered aloud.

Daphne laughed lightly but Ron could see by the strain around her eyes and the tightness of her jaw that it was taking a lot out of her to maintain the spell, which was stubbornly staying a hazy sort of yellow.

It was like being on the weirdest sight seeing tour. Every now and then the hat would make some comment about an object they walked by, musing on its history and how one person from Hogwarts history or another had been missing that for some time.

'Grab that,' he said harshly, startling both Ron and Daphne with the force of his words. He seemed to be talking about a gold jewellery box that was perched precariously on the edge of an old end table that was missing one of its legs.

'What is it?' Daphne asked as she produced a cloth pouch from the pocket of her Slytherin windcheater and carefully manoeuvred the box into it.

The hat bowed in approval of her handling of the object, it was a very strange movement to feel on the top of your head. 'A very dark object that should never have been allowed inside the school. I'd appreciate you destroying it when you're done here.'

Curious but realising the hat wasn't about to give anything away, Daphne nodded her agreement and they set off once more.

Finally, after what felt like hours they reached an area that satisfied the hat and that Daphne could agree contained a lot of objects that were popular or made at least fifty years before. Now they just had to hope the hat could narrow down the object they were looking for.

A boom echoed through the room, shaking dust from the ceiling and sending numerous piles tumbling to the floor.

The last ward was down and they were running out of time.


	25. Chapter 25

**a/n: **Thank you for the wonderful reviews and the delightful feedback in general! You definitely make it worth writing. This one is going to be painful and violent and well, its big. Enjoy!

**Chapter 25**

It had taken a few minutes for Voldemort's army to notice the wards were down and those few minutes were all Harry had needed to take them by surprise. It seems that it didn't matter that they were attacking a school; the Death Eaters hadn't actually been expecting anyone to put up much of a fight. It was all the sweeter knowing that some of the last moments those Death Eaters had were filled with fear of children.

A group of seventh years led by Emmy blew the front doors open – literally. The unexpected assault from the inside sent wood and stone hurtling into a crowd of surprised Death Eaters and before they had a proper chance to recover Emmy led the charge out of the castle and onto the grounds. Spells were flying, launching into the dust-covered group and knocking down witches and wizards before the smoke had cleared.

Emmy's group kept on moving, pushing the Death Eaters back until they had formed a semi-circle around the gaping hole where the front doors of the castle should have been. She would see to it that no one made it through her ranks, even if it meant dying. They had a castle to protect, a castle filled with mostly innocent children.

Something hard slammed into her right shoulder and she felt a strange numbness spread down her arm to the very tips of her fingers. She yelled in pain, fingers spasm and nearly causing her to drop her wand. She grabbed it from her suddenly slack fingers and started firing spells left-handed. Her accuracy might not have been spot on but she would not stop now.

Other people were screaming, some of them were her fellow students; most of them were Death Eaters. The Hufflepuff to her right fell suddenly, legs folding under him like jelly. Before she even had the chance to cry for aid a house elf was there, hand landing on the boys shoulder and disappearing with a sharp crack. A heartbeat later a fifth year Ravenclaw was taking his place.

Someone lunged at her out of the crowd of swarming Death Eaters, she only caught a glimpse of fiery red hair before she was tackled to the ground. Her right arm useless, she couldn't get the force needed to shove the _thing_ off her. A blast of spell fire from her left sent her attacking flying and then a hand was reaching down to grip her shoulder and haul her to her feet.

Something warm was dribbling down her neck but she didn't want to risk raising her one good hand to her neck to check the damage. Another glimpse of her attacker told her all she needed to know about the wound on her neck and she set fire to the creature's robes.

'A vampire?' she demanded of no one in particular. 'A freaking vampire!'

She didn't think any of Lupin's classes on dark creatures had prepared her for actually getting attacked by a real live vampire. But she didn't have time to think about that. Ducking under another curse she started firing Snape's slashing curse over and over again into the crowd.

Screams and blood; that was the backdrop of battle, that was the scene that would play over and over in her nightmares for years to come.

When the Seventh year next to her fell, she knew there was no chance of him getting back up.

* * *

Molly Weasley was not a killer. She was a mother, though, and as a mother she would fight to the death to protect her own.

When the first Death Eater fell at her hands, the spell slamming into his back before he even knew she was there, she had felt remorse. The second one had her feeling guilt. The third Death Eater she killed she felt only fury. A blind rage took over and she slammed an Unforgivable into the laughing man with so much force that he was thrown backward even as his heart stopped.

She had no time for tears only anger and the need to protect those of her children who still lived.

She could not afford to look to the ground where Percy lay dead beside her, glasses askew, wand frozen in stiff fingers.

* * *

Stephanie had never been a fan of trolls. There was an incident in her first year summer holidays that no one ever talked about but it was safe to say that she would never again be able to think of trolls without shivering.

Of course, that was before she'd come face to face with one on the lawns at Hogwarts. This particular beast had lumbered around the green houses and simply walked through the ranks of Death Eaters trying their luck with the side of the castle. It didn't seem to care whether it was taking out Death Eaters or students with its club.

One of the fourth years she was directing took a solid hit to the chest that sent him careening back into the castle wall. Even over the sounds of battle and the screams of spells and the dying, Stephanie heard the sounds of bones breaking. He would never see another day at Hogwarts, never see another fight or a game of Quidditch, he'd never get to kiss a girl or experience love.

Rage churned inside her and she snagged another of her team to work with her to take on the troll. A third grabbed them both by the backs of their shirts and pulled them back, sending them tumbling to the ground, just as something huge fell from the sky.

When Stephanie got to her feet all that was left of the troll was a flat mess of blood and gore squashed into the grass beneath a huge chunk of the castle wall. Looking up she imagined she could see a big hairy face smiling down at her surrounded by first years.

Maybe thinking about trolls wouldn't be so bad after all.

* * *

Sirius and Ruby stood back to back, working together perfectly to keep the circle of Death Eaters at bay. There was no time for sarcastic comments or witty banter. There was no time for fear or bravery; there was only time to fight, to think about the next spell, the next move.

Sirius ducked under a spell, feeling Ruby crouching with him before she rolled across his back in a move that looked practiced but had occurred purely on the fly. Her leg kicked out and she knocked out a few of a Death Eater's teeth before slamming a spell into a different Death Eaters face. The sounds of his screams became the soundtrack to the fall of the next few Death Eaters.

Then Remus was there, fighting his way through the throng of Death Eaters with Tonks at his side. Sirius' oldest friend had a snarl on his face that was almost wolfish and he was putting down more Death Eaters with what seemed like decades worth of repressed anger and resentment than Sirius had ever seen from his fiend.

The two shared an animalistic smile, the last the pair would ever have the chance to.

When Remus fell, the sound that emerged from Sirius' lips was much more animal than human.

* * *

He deserved nothing less than an Order of Merlin First Class for this. Propped against the side of the broom shed in a puddle of his own blood, Jesse had his wand gripped tightly in one hand while the other clutched desperately around his thigh in a failing attempt to stem the flow of blood.

He'd known the instant the spell had hit him that he wouldn't be getting up any time soon. Whatever it was the bitch had hit him with had severed an artery; the blood spurt alone had almost made him heave. Instead he'd allowed the Creevey brothers to drag him to a point of relative safety where he'd pulled himself into a sitting position and begun to pick off passing Death Eaters one by one.

His vision was starting to blur around the edges and it was becoming harder and harder to lift his wand. His spells were hitting Death Eaters low, most of them being hit in the knees or thighs and with his good leg propped up and his free arm propped on top that was about the only place he could hit as they darted by.

Colin grunted beside him, cradling his younger brother to his chest as he fired spell after spell. Jesse didn't think he'd even realised his brother was dead. Not that he though it would change the desperate way he hung on.

Something hot and purple shot passed his nose and the place where Colin had been erupted into shards of glass. As consciousness escaped his grasp, Jesse could only wonder what the hell kind of spell turned someone to glass and shattered them into a million pieces.

At least the brothers had died together.

* * *

Ron and Daphne burst into the fight, desperately searching for any sign of whoever was in possession of the Gryffindor sword. They knew Harry didn't have it but neither of them had been around to find out whom Harry had ordered to retrieve it.

Scanning the grounds, Daphne pointed sharply toward Hagrid's hut. Squinting Ron could just about make out Neville swinging the sword with surprising precision as he protected a group of house elves tending to some wounded students. Each wraith the sword touch seemed to shrink in on itself before vanishing in a pinprick of light.

Muttering about the sword being so damn far away, the couple began to fight their way across the grounds to the only weapon they knew of that could destroy the diadem tucked safely away in Daphne's cloth pouch. Ron hadn't even had time to giggle over the image of Voldemort wearing a tiara.

The path to Neville was filled with the fallen bodies of Death Eaters and students. Spells were flying from every direction and there was a chance that they'd be hit by friendly fire and not just the wild spells cast by Death Eaters.

Daphne leapt over the fallen body of a troll – no time to go around – and whipped a spell at a ghoul that had made to leap out from under the fallen body. Ron finished it off as Daphne kept running, it was about the only time she'd ever let him act as bodyguard but she was carrying something far too important to worry about reminding him she was strong enough on her own.

Ron swatted away a curse using the spelled sleeve of his dragon hide jacket, sending the yellow spell into the back of an unsuspecting Death Eater who was bending over a fallen student about to render the final killing blow.

'Down!' Daphne shrieked and his body obeyed automatically. A good thing, too, as the boulder that flew over his head was unlikely to have been something so easily put off by a last minute spell.

'Fuck,' he swore, launching to his feet and slashing his wand sharply, directing a cutting curse across the throat of the troll who had just tried to squash them. Blood sprayed across the pair but they continued their sprint across the grounds toward Neville.

A sudden roar went up among the Death Eaters and for a moment Daphne and Ron stilled. The tumultuous roar of triumph was a cheer of support that could mean only one thing. Voldemort had arrived and that meant that Nagini wouldn't be far behind.

'One at a time!' Daphne hissed back at him, as though she could read the temptation on his features despite the fact that running ahead of him meant she couldn't actually see his face. It was scary how well she knew him sometimes.

Six dead Death Eaters, two dark creatures and a deep gash to Ron's cheek later they were leaping through the fading smoke of the last wraith to arrive at Neville's side.

'Here!' Daphne practically shouted, pulling out the pouch and shaking the contents onto the grass. 'Stab the tiara!'

Neville had come a long way from the forgetful round boy Ron had first encountered on the Hogwarts Express, he didn't even stop to question it, just lunged forward, driving the tip of the blade into the peak of Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem. The tiara broke apart releasing a moaning cloud that dissipated into the air.

'Two to go,' Ron murmured.

'Let's go get us a snake,' Daphne agreed.

Ron took the sword from Neville and turned to dart back into the fight. He had no idea how they were supposed to find one small snake in all of this but they had to try. Finding Voldemort was obviously their next step. It was easier if they didn't think about what that meant for Harry.

* * *

Harry was going toe to toe with what remained of Voldemort's inner circle. He thought. It was a little bit hard to tell what with the masks they insisted on wearing and the fact that Harry and his friends had already killed quite a few of them. Whoever was under the mask was putting up a hell of a fight that was for sure.

Harry was stronger, though, and faster. It was only a matter of time before one of his spells hit home and the Death Eater crumpled to the grass. He didn't stand around to enjoy his victory; he charged a pack of werewolves who seemed to be of the same ilk as Greyback had been. Their spells and actions were just as feral as could be expected. Despite the lack of the full moon to drive them to shift they were perfectly content to feast on the flesh of fallen students.

It was a sickening sight to see, an end that no one should have to face.

Harry took a great deal of pleasure from destroying those werewolves who gave people like Remus a bad name. He doubted any of the kids Tonks was housing at Grimmauld place would ever consider being like that, not if they were shown kindness and compassion that had previously been lacking from the magical world.

He caught a glimpse of red hair out of the corner of his eye and a second later he could see Ron, Sword of Gryffindor in hand, charging across the battlefield toward the area where the cheers and shouts had originated when Voldemort had arrived. Harry knew by the way his best friend was charging through the fighters that he would make it to Voldemort before Harry could dispatch with the werewolves.

He would just have to get there as soon as he could and occupy Voldemort while Ron and Daphne took care of Nagini.

Twin redheads and a blonde suddenly burst through the ranks of the pack and George nodded over toward his younger brother, 'Go!' he shouted.

Harry barely took the time to nod before he spun on his heel and tore after his best friend. He trusted the Weasley twins and Abby to handle the werewolves.

He could have flamed straight to Ron's side but running afforded him a better view of what he was charging into and gave him the chance to kill a few people on the way. He blew apart a brother and sister and launched over their fallen bodies. The sight that greeted him made his heart stop and for a moment time seemed to slow down.

There was Ron, sword swinging down to bring an end to Nagini as Daphne battled a vampire. There was the unmistakable flash of green careening toward Ron's unprotected back.

There really was no need for thought. After all, what better way to die than protecting your friend and saving the world?

He flamed, putting himself between Ron's back and the deadly spell in the space of a heartbeat.

His last thoughts were filled with hope for the future.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

_7 days ago…_

When he had first left the castle, Dumbledore had every intention of seeking out another of Voldemort's horcruxes. He'd left the castle determined to rid the world of one more evil object and to help Harry in the only way he felt he really could any longer.

Things, of course, had not gone according to plan. He had barely made it into Hogsmeade when a sound like thunder echoed around the village and a fantastic light display lit up the night. The ground beneath his feet rumbled and he turned back to look toward the castle with his heart beating a terrified race in his chest.

The wards around Hogwarts had fallen and he was sprinting back toward the castle as fast as his frail body would allow. But he was old and, though unwilling to admit it, quite sick and he hadn't made it far before he saw a golden light snap up and over Hogwarts forming yet another ward. One he had not even known the castle possessed.

Then he had rounded a bend in the road and his heart had very nearly stopped. He had passed through not five minutes before and then it had been quiet, there hadn't been any strange sounds or movement that had put him on his guard. What he'd seen upon his return was a completely different story. Pressing, as close to the new wards as possible, were dozens of giants, Death Eaters and more Dark Creatures than Dumbledore had ever seen in one place.

Worse, though, they were organised. He had never, in his many years, seen an army of such scale with so many different species filling ranks and looking organised. The sight was almost as bad as the knowledge that they were gathered under Voldemort's orders to take the school.

Dumbledore couldn't help but wonder what the scene would have looked like had Harry not insisted on turning the students into such a force. Would Voldemort have needed all of these men and creatures or would he have merely snuck into the castle through some unknown route and taken them all while they slept?

It took him a while to confirm there was no way for him to slip through this new ward and even longer for him to decide whether or not to continue on with his plan for the evening or to go in search of aid. He felt certain if he went to the Ministry or even to the Order they could have people ready quickly to fight back. He was equally certain that Harry would have already taken those steps. He had no way of knowing how, but he was forced to acknowledge that Harry was a force to be reckoned with, he was clever, strong and he had certainly built up a wealth of skills that Dumbledore could never hope to learn about.

He made the decision to turn his back on the fight Voldemort was beginning and instead continued on his journey to destroy another horcrux. This, he knew, would be of far more help to Harry than simply running to the Ministry or the Order.

That decision seemed like days ago now, even if the reality was much more likely to have been hours. Getting to the cave Voldemort had once seen as a child had been simple enough and though the small swim had been taxing his desire to rid the world of Voldemort and save Harry had given him the strength to push through the pain.

He had barely paused when the wall demanded a blood sacrifice and it had only taken him moments to discover the little boat chained to the shore. He'd taken the slow journey to the middle of the lake as a chance to recover his breath and his equilibrium after the cold of the ocean swim. He was tired and bone weary but he knew what he was doing was right, that it had to be done.

His faith wavered slightly with the terror that came from the knowledge that he had to drink the poison in the basin. He could see no way around it and it was too late to send for help. He wasn't sure anyone would even come.

But Dumbledore believed in his research, he believed that what he was doing was in the name of the future and the safety of the wizarding world. He strongly believed that his faith would get him through, would push him to continue drinking even as the unknown substance destroyed his mind.

The first cup was easy, though it didn't come without pain or fear. The second was harder, the third harder still. The fourth, he dropped twice back into the basin before he could drink it.

He would never remember the fifth. He would never know the sixth.

Albus Dumbledore would never know that the real horcrux had been stolen long ago. He would never know that it was stolen by a Death Eater and recovered by the son of one, both desperate to stop Voldemort and his reign of terror.

He would never know that Ron Weasley had once lay in this very place or that he had survived only because he had surrounded himself with people who loved him.

Albus Dumbledore would never understand that by standing alone he made himself vulnerable to death.

He would never get to know a world without Voldemort.

* * *

_Now…_

After the massacre at St Mungo's Ruby had made an offhand comment – purely for academic reasons – that she would have loved to have seen Harry lost to his power and how it was he completely destroyed Voldemort's forces.

She wanted to take it back now. Someone up there had been listening and she now felt like she was the butt of some higher power's joke.

She wasn't getting to see Harry in all of his glory because Harry was dead. Watching him flame in front of the killing curse meant for his best friend would be an image permanently seared onto her eyeballs. She would see the way the life simply went out of him for decades to come.

It was watching Ally that would give her nightmares.

If she'd thought the grounds of Hogwarts had been chaos before it was nothing to now, in the aftermath of Harry's death. Where before there had been fighting and screaming and the sound of blood and battle and people falling – both friend and foe – now there was only terrified screams and the sounds of running.

Ruby had lost sight of her best friend early in the battle, the fiery blonde had gone straight for the giants and the tougher Dark Creatures, leaving the Death Eaters and remaining forces for those more capable of coping with the weaker threats. While her eyes may have lost track of Ally and instead locked onto Harry in his final moments, the whole school, perhaps even Hogsmeade, found her when Harry fell.

The sound that had erupted from Ally's mouth had silenced the battle like nothing else could. It was more animal than human, more song than words, but the sound had crept inside Ruby's very soul until it made her feel as though she could never be happy again, as though a very part of her being had been ripped away.

The haunting sound of anguish had carried across the battlefield, driving students and Death Eater's alike to their knees. Ruby had felt tears streaming down her cheeks before she was even aware she was going to cry. The air filled with the last gasping breaths of those who lay dying and the mournful song of a phoenix without her mate.

And then Voldemort began to laugh.

Later, Ruby would wonder if perhaps Voldemort was no longer human enough to feel the cry of the phoenix, that perhaps he hadn't realised just what it was he was inciting. His high cold laugh cut through the phoenix song and Ruby could only watch, struck rigid with terror and awe as her best friend exploded in a fiery ball of flame that shot thirty feet into the air and just as far in a full circle around her.

Ally's clothes simply crumbled away, even the dragon hide unable to withstand the temperatures of her flames. She stood, a burning pillar of flames in a circle of charred remains. Anyone unlucky enough to be in her path had died instantly; Ruby could see the hulking form of a troll simply drifting away as the wind caught the ashen remains.

And then Ally began to move and finally Ruby was able to force her body to obey commands. Her hands reached out and she grabbed her husband with one arm and a seventh year by the other, 'Run!' she commanded with such certainty that the seventh year was off like a shot.

Demonstrating one of the many reasons she'd married him, Sirius flung a spell into the air creating the glowing form of an owl in the sky. The creature's wings spread and it swooped over the grounds. It was a sign to retreat.

Everyone had heard the rumours about St Mungo's by now and as she turned and ran, Ruby could see members of the ADADA and those they tutored scrambling away from the approaching form of their old DADA professor.

Encouraged by Voldemort's laughter, a number of Death Eater's began to fight again. The creatures that had not felt the phoenix song were only too eager to chase after the retreating students.

Ally cut them all down. She moved so fast it was impossible to guess where she would be next. The violence she used in cutting down her opponents was horrific and the picture it was building in Ruby's mind of the night Harry had arrived at the hospital was making her sick.

Still she ran, in this state, she didn't trust that her best friend would recognise even her in amongst her enemies.

Sirius reached down to haul a young girl to her feet and only as he encouraged her to move quicker, did Ruby realise the robe she wore marked her as a Death Eater. She looked petrified, tears streaming down her face and it was that look of fear that saved her from Ruby's wrath. She couldn't have been more than seventeen.

Something sharp dug into her side and she stumbled. Heat blazed up her chest and down her leg. She didn't want to look down, afraid of what she might see. Sirius didn't look either; he scooped her up into his arms and continued to run toward the safety of the castle.

Emmy's defensive half circle was open to let the fleeing students and adults in. Her team was expertly picking off any Death Eaters or dark creatures in pursuit.

It was Emmy who took down the young Death Eater Sirius had dragged to her feet. Catching the terrified young girl in the chest with a killing curse. Through the pain in her side and the screams of terrified witches and wizards, Ruby could do nothing to prevent the attack.

Later, when she considered the young girls crimes she may even be thankful for that.

'Close in!' Emmy shouted, as Sirius carried Ruby up the steps and into the strangely quiet castle.

'I want to see,' Ruby sputtered, blood bubbling up her throat to dribble down her chin.

Knowing she wasn't talking about the wound to her side, Sirius carried Ruby over to a window where he could sit her on the ledge and tend to her while she watched what was happening in the grounds below.

Ally hadn't made it to Voldemort yet, seeming content to take out all of his men first. The castle grounds were a mess and though she couldn't see it all in the growing darkness, Ruby knew that come morning the grass would be soaked red with blood or burned black where Ally had waged her war.

Ron and Daphne were still outside.

Beyond Harry's back, Ruby had seen Ron cut through Nagini with the sword of Gryffindor and the knowledge that Harry was dead meant they could finally kill Voldemort. It looked like that was what Ron and Daphne were trying to do.

They fired spells at the Dark Lord but he dodged and skilfully blocked almost all of them. The ones that made it through his shields barely seemed to leave a mark. As Ruby watched, Stephanie joined them and then a lanky figure Ruby thought might have been a boy called Dean. Then the Longbottom boy joined the fray and another girl Ruby didn't know. They formed a circle around Voldemort and in an instant she realised what they were doing.

They were a distraction. These kids had braved Ally's flames and their own fears to face off against Lord Voldemort just to buy Ally the time she needed to finish off the rest of his forces.

But Voldemort seemed to be only toying with them. As she watched, eyes growing heavy from blood loss and not even feeling the hands working at her side, Ruby saw Neville and the girl at his side fall. She saw Dean falter before he too crumpled. She saw Stephanie take a spell to the leg that sent her flying backward. She didn't get back up and Ruby couldn't tell if she was dead.

Ruby was crying again, black spots crowding her vision until all she could see was a blur of red and blonde she knew to be Ron and Daphne.

This was a fight none of them should ever have been involved in, a war that should never have touched them safe in their school. It was a sight they should never have seen, a terror they should never have felt.

But that safety was an illusion, it was a goal, the hope to which they were all fighting toward. These kids, these brave stupid kids, were giving up everything they had, everything they could have been to fight for a future they may never have the chance to see.

Daphne fell. Ruby could imagine the sound of agony that escaped the young Slytherin's lips as her legs failed beneath her.

It was just Ron now, spells, growing weaker and weaker, his body sluggish as he tried to move and dodge the spells that Voldemort lazily curled back toward him. Something gave way beneath Ron and he started to fall. Voldemort leaned forward as though he was speaking to the fallen boy and Ron shot a spell right into Voldemort's face.

Voldemort reeled back, whipping his wand in Ron's direction and Ruby wanted to close her eyes, to block out what she knew was about to be the spell that ended Ron's life.

But the last thing she saw before consciousness escaped her was a tall flaming figure suddenly appearing between them, one hand gripped securely around the Dark Lord's throat. She must have been hallucinating because that figure had looked like -

'Harry,' Sirius croaked.

It was nice, the last thing she would hear being her husbands voice, even if it was calling someone else's name.


	27. Chapter 27

**a/n: **This was a weird one to write, i didn't want it to be triply because i wanted to know that i wasn't the only one that was one hundred percent sure what the hell was happening. I think i managed.

**Chapter 27**

Harry had no illusions about death. He hadn't been expecting much from the afterlife even if he'd had cause to question it a time or two over his years at Hogwarts. The ability to actually talk to ghosts did raise a few interesting questions about exactly what happened to you after you died. Constantly facing death made you think on it too.

He'd never considered the afterlife would look like the Great Hall with all of the tables removed. He couldn't say he'd been expecting the haunting phoenix song that swirled around him, sinking deep into his bones. And did he even have bones? He certainly felt solid enough; he could reach out and touch walls and the paintings hanging there.

He looked up at the ceiling to see the sky was a marvellous display of colour. It was like looking at a perfect cloudless night, so many stars scattered across the sky, he even thought he could see the twisting spiral of a galaxy. It was warm too; the comfortable heat of phoenix fire permeated the room until Harry could imagine it was a snowy winter night and that he was preparing to snuggle down in front of a roaring fire with Ally.

Ally. He hadn't even gotten the chance to say goodbye, hadn't had more than a heartbeat to make the choice. It had been the right choice, maybe not the best ending he could have asked for but dying to save your best friend and to give them an actual chance at defeating Voldemort, that was definitely worth dying for.

Only this wasn't anything like he imagined death would be. There wasn't anyone passing judgement on him, no one directing him toward a light where he would spend the rest of eternity watching over those he loved with his parents until the time came for Ally to join him. There wasn't even a black hole waiting to suck him down to hell for all of the lives he'd taken. Even if those lives had been taken in defence of others.

Harry looked down and away from the ceiling and found that some time during his musing a table had appeared. It was an old and heavy wooden piece covered in scars and burns and a dinner spread. Harry blinked just to make sure. The plate and goblet didn't disappear and with nothing better to do Harry sat down, picked up the knife and fork and started in on the warm roast dinner.

This definitely didn't feel like death.

'Harry.' The sound of his name breaking the steady calm of the phoenix song surprised him. What surprised him even more was that the voice was familiar. Albus Dumbledore had appeared out of thin air beside the table. The old headmaster was looking around the room with the same scrutiny Harry had done moments before, he just looked less confused by what he was seeing.

Harry gestured to the seat opposite him, wondering at the sudden appearance of the headmaster. There were a lot of people Harry imagined seeing upon his death but Dumbledore wasn't one of them. The startling realisation that Dumbledore might actually be dead only occurred to him when the man sat down and Harry saw that his previously withered hand looked healed.

'You died,' Harry said with some surprise, he thought the death of the great Albus Dumbledore would have made it through the wards around Hogwarts.

'I did,' Dumbledore agreed.

'I jumped in front of a killing curse meant for Ron,' Harry informed Dumbledore. 'It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.'

'The right thing?' Harry wondered why he even bothered with the pretence of confusion. They were dead; the least the old man could do was be honest.

'Don't,' he said sharply. 'You know why I had to die, why not do it saving someone I love?'

'Ah,' Dumbledore murmured, shifting his gaze away from Harry to seemingly study the floor beside the table. 'You were aware of your possible nature as a horcrux?'

Harry nodded. 'I was.' He chewed thoughtfully on a mouthful of roast potato, considering his next words very carefully. 'We were wrong.'

Dumbledore looked surprised by this news. Harry enjoyed being able to surprise the old man, even in death. It was nice to know he could still get his kicks from the same things. He just really wished this truth were something he could have come to know before he'd jumped in front of the killing curse. He doubted it would have changed his mind any or made the decision any different but knowing what he did now he may have hesitated. A little.

'I haven't been a horcrux for a very long time, sir,' Harry announced. 'Funny how none of us considered that.'

'How so?' Dumbledore looked merely curious, there was no hidden agenda here; no slight crinkling of his eyes to suggest that he had known this fact all along. It eased something inside of Harry, a fear he hadn't even known he was harbouring.

It was strange, the clarity death could create in a person. All of these things Harry had always known but never had the time to acknowledge were suddenly forefront in his mind. Connections he would never before have been able to make because there were other considerations to take into account. All of these things just occurred to Harry as though he had known them all along and was only now just bothering to think about it.

He thought he better start at the beginning, though. 'When I was a baby Voldemort did create a horcrux on the night of my parents death. It wasn't intentional, which I suspect you always knew, but a piece of his soul was stored in me.'

Dumbledore nodded, acknowledging this as nothing he hadn't already known.

'When I was twelve I almost died from basilisk venom and as you know that is one of the few things that can destroy a horcrux.'

'You are suggesting that the piece of Voldemort's soul was destroyed the night you rescued Ginny Weasley from the Chamber of Secrets?'

Harry shook his head. 'Not destroyed, no, I don't think it was enough to destroy it but Fawkes did something that day that I wasn't expecting. Tell me, sir, what do you know of human phoenix?'

Much to Harry's surprise, Dumbledore's eyes didn't widen, his jaw didn't slacken, he didn't even stiffen as though he had suddenly come to a startling conclusion. He remained completely and utterly unaware of what Harry was referring to. It was simply mind boggling. Harry had always suspected that if anyone would know the true extent of the abilities of a phoenix it would be the man Fawkes chose to spend his time with.

Clearly he had been mistaken.

'A human can be imbued with the power of a phoenix if they undergo a number of magical circumstances. First, the human must survive the killing curse, second they must be poisoned by basilisk venom and third they must be healed with phoenix tears mixed with phoenix blood.'

Dumbledore was so still, Harry thought he might have died all over again. His eyes were narrowed in thought and his hand had frozen midway through stroking his beard. It was actually quite a comical sight but Harry didn't think laughing would improve the situation at all. He refrained, though it was a tough choice.

'I am a phoenix, sir, I'm not capable of housing a horcrux, not properly. The day Fawkes changed me the part of Voldemort's soul in me grew very weak. It never had the strength to influence me, not after that, it was locked away in some distant part of my mind where I could barely touch on its power and it certainly couldn't interfere with mine.'

The implications of that sent Dumbledore reeling. All of those times he had treated Harry coldly or distantly because he feared Voldemort might even then be watching, all of those times he had shut Harry out were for nothing. The idea that the choices Harry had made, the violence and the death he had been a part of were choices he had made with no influence from a piece of Voldemort broke Dumbledore's heart. He could have handled things so differently if only he had known. If only he had listened when Harry had repeatedly tried to tell him, when so many others had tried to tell him.

'I'm so sorry, Harry,' Dumbledore's voice broke over his words, choking on regrets as he was. Harry shrugged; it seemed somehow petty to hold a grudge now that he was dead. There was that clarity thing again, making him see that, although he had been wrong to do so, all of Dumbledore's actions had been done out of love. A twisted and manipulative version of it, yes, but he had honestly believed that what he was doing was for Harry, that it was to protect him.

Harry could understand that even if he didn't agree with it.

'Then I met Ally, did you know phoenix mate for life?'

'I did,' Dumbledore inclined his head and Harry was struck by how easily past tense just tumbled off his tongue.

'She's three hundred years old,' Harry went on. 'Survived a killing curse, nearly died from basilisk venom was saved by a phoenix. We live a very long time, sir,' he added, just in case he hadn't already given Dumbledore enough to think about. 'When we, uh, consummated our relationship it bound us,' he held up his wrist to show Dumbledore the flames that showed his connection to his mate. He was momentarily thrown to see that they were still moving as if showing his proximity to Ally. 'It burned us from the inside out, leaving this mark as the only magic that bound us. Voldemort's soul couldn't survive that.'

'It was destroyed.'

'Yes but I'd been living with this piece of Voldemort for so long it left an echo, a weak shadow that allowed the connection between Voldemort and I to remain open.'

Harry went back to his dinner, leaving Dumbledore to contemplate all that he had just learned. He wondered if Dumbledore would question his comment about Ally's age or if he had already drawn his own conclusions, ones he wouldn't need Harry to confirm. He certainly wasn't doing anything to hide the way his eyes were roving over Harry, seeking out any evidence of the phoenix nature Harry had. There were thousands of connections suddenly being made in Dumbledore's mind, moments he had witnessed where Harry had done or said something that he was suddenly able to make sense of.

Harry, for his part, was beginning to notice a change in the phoenix song and a sudden heat burning comfortably in both of his wrists. The connection he shared with Ally was blazing through him with new strength and the one he shared with Molly was a jumble of confused emotions that tugged so strongly at him he began to feel as though he were being pulled from his heart like a portkey tugged from the navel.

Dropping his fork back onto the table with a clatter, Harry realised what was happening. 'Oh!' he exclaimed with some surprise and a great deal of happiness. 'Turns out the killing curse can't kill me!'

His last look at Dumbledore, at the man he had once respected more than any other, was a brief flash of the surprised but accepting look on the old mans face. Dumbledore would only see the delight on his face.

Harry's eyes blinked open and for a moment he was aware that Dumbledore was dead and of all the knowledge he had understood in that strange place. He blinked again and the clarity was gone. He didn't remember anything that had been said between them, didn't remember his sudden understanding of his exact role as a horcrux. He only remembered with a strange sort of certainty – though he had no idea how he knew this – that Dumbledore was dead.

The battle rushed back to him as quickly as his after death clarity had vanished and he was moving before he really knew his surroundings. Flaming, he once again planted himself firmly between Ron and certain death, hand gripped tightly around Voldemort's throat.

He would savour the sudden look of terror on the man's face for centuries to come.


	28. Chapter 28

**a/n: **Support for this story continues to amaze me. Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter, your thoughts were hilarious, exhilarating and at some times downright prophetic. Enjoy this one, the one you've all been waiting for.

**Chapter 28**

There were a lot of things Ron imagined doing with his life. He imagined training to become an auror, marrying Daphne and having a couple of kids. Definitely no more than three because he knew all too well the kinds of trouble seven kids could get up to when under the same roof. On his more honest days he wasn't all that sure he knew how his parents had coped.

He imagined playing Quidditch on weekends and teaching his kids all sorts of jokes and tricks that the twins had once taught him. He could picture that first day of school when he would be standing on the platform waving goodbye as his eldest child prepared for their first days at Hogwarts, for the beginning of the rest of their lives.

That was how he pictured his future when he sat down and really had a think on it. That was the good future, the one he was fighting for. The one where Voldemort was gone and all his children had to worry about was whether or not he'd yell at them when he inevitably tripped over the broomstick they'd carelessly left lying across the back mat. He'd imagined dinners with Harry and his family and raising their kids together.

He'd also imagined another future, one where Voldemort was still gone but where things were darker and a little harder. He imagined a future where Harry died and he lost Daphne, he imagined how hard it would be to carry on knowing that although they had succeeded in killing Voldemort the price had simply been too high.

That future was one he often thought about on the bad days. The days when he woke from sleep to find Daphne thrashing and screaming, frantic limbs tangled in sheets. That was the future he imagined when they lost another member of the ADADA or someone else came home with bad news.

He'd never truly let himself believe that would be the future he would live. He'd never imagined that future would come about because of one selfless act by his best friend.

Daphne slammed a curse into the back of a witch, sending the Death Eater tumbling face first onto the grass, arms and legs twitching as her body tried to process a spell it had no way of combating. She sent another spell directly into the face of the Death Eater crouched beside the witch while Ron gripped the sword of Gryffindor tightly in his hands, using the flat of the blade to bounce curses and spells back on their originator.

Finding Nagini had been hard, the large snake had the advantage of speed and being so low to the ground that she could hide within the grass and the fallen bodies of Death Eaters and students alike. In the end, Daphne had been forced to try a summoning charm that had lasted just long enough the raise the heavy snake high enough above the grass that squinting round the grounds quickly, Ron had been able to spot the snake.

Nagini had been circling lazily around Voldemort, clamping her razor sharp fangs onto the legs of anyone she saw fit until Daphne's spell had disrupted her fun. Getting to her had been just as difficult as finding her. It was like there was an impenetrable wall of Death Eaters around Voldemort and another loose ring of people fighting hard to kill each other. Nagini was somehow in the middle, close enough to hear her masters hissing commands but far enough away that her prey didn't work for her master.

Daphne dove between two Death Eaters, springing up behind them and grabbing them by the heads. She slammed their heads together in a manner that under different circumstances would have made Ron laugh. Instead he just ran them through with the sword. He dodged a blow, rolled and caught another spell on the flat of the blade. Something hot slapped his wrist but though it was uncomfortable he didn't slacken his grip.

Daphne darted right to avoid a fist and spun to deliver a killing blow to her left. The Death Eater went down in a spray of blood and screams and Ron stumbled over the fallen body as he lunged forward to strike at a Veela who was aiming a fireball at Daphne's back. The blade dug into her arm rather than severing it but it served its purpose. The fireball vanished and Daphne spun to fire a killing curse at the creature before she could attempt to enthral Ron with her magical wiles.

They did not have time for him to go all woolly over some creature in the middle of a battle.

Duck. Stab. Stumble. Jerk. Lunge. Stab again. Slip, jerk left, lunge again. Stab. Slash. Ron was lost to the movement, each a necessary step to take him that much closer to his goal. Three steps ahead Daphne was dancing her own battlefield number, never moving far enough from him that anyone could comfortably get between them, never getting too close that Ron was unable to effectively use the hulking great sword.

And then, finally, there was Nagini, lunging up at them as though she could somehow sink her teeth into the sword he held before him. Daphne was far quicker, her spell catching the snake under the chin and driving the snake backward as she struggled to use her powerful muscles to slither back toward her prey. Daphne slammed her boot down on Nagini's body just below her jaw and glanced up and back at Ron. Ron raised the sword slightly, preparing to stab Nagini when two things happened: Daphne screamed and something heavy fell against his back, driving him forward.

Even as his body fell, pushed down under the weight of whatever had fallen against him, Ron was focused enough to drive the sword forward through Nagini's writhing body and the ground beneath. A black stain spread from the wound up and down the length of Nagini's body and she wriggled twice more before her jaws gaped wide and a thick grey smoke drifted from her mouth.

The instant Nagini stopped moving Daphne lurched away from the snake toward Ron and the weight that was pushing him to his knees. He wriggled out from under it, shucking his shoulders until the heavy thing slid sideways. It was only the look on Daphne's face that told him something was very wrong.

Slowly, Ron turned his head to the side to see what had fallen on him and his eyes met the open unseeing stare of his best friend. Ron's mind went completely blank. He couldn't process what he was seeing; it didn't make any sense. And then a sound like Ron had never heard before – and hoped never to hear again – filled the air and brought the battle to a standstill. It filled his ears and his very soul with a heavy feeling of sorrow that threatened to overwhelm his senses. If he had not already been on his knees he felt certain that sound would have had him falling.

Across the grounds a huge fireball engulfed Ally and all of those standing within thirty feet of her. Ron knew, in that distant part of his mind that must still have been functioning and processing what was happening around him, that he was witnessing something similar to what Harry had gone through at St Mungo's. Probably worse.

Then Voldemort began to laugh and reality snapped back into place. Ron knew what he had to do. Without looking at the fallen body of his friend he staggered to his feet, letting go of his grip on the sword he drew his wand and charged toward Voldemort. Daphne was barely a step behind him.

His first spell slammed into Voldemort's frail body with no effect. The skin-and-bones appearance of the old man was deceptive. Though he must have been at least seventy, the spells and experiments he'd undergone gave him the strength and vigour of someone half his age. He parried and dodged the majority of the spells Ron and Daphne sent his way with ease, sometimes not even bothering, allowing the spells to land harmlessly against his body as though he knew they couldn't possibly cause him harm.

Around them screams of terror and the sounds of fleeing footsteps filled the night air. Ron didn't waste time looking around, he could guess what was happening. Ally was taking her revenge and anyone smart enough was getting the hell out of her way. All he and Daphne had to do was keep Voldemort occupied, keep him from running or realising that all of his horcruxes were gone and then Ally could come and finish him off.

Stephanie slammed into the ground beside Ron, rolling to her feet and spinning, firing spell after spell as she got to her feet, refusing to give Voldemort the chance to hit back. Her spells were ferocious, she was putting more power into her spells than Ron had ever seen before and yet she didn't seem to be tiring. Later, when he had the time to think about it, he would realise just how proud he was that this girl he had hand picked, had gone toe to toe with Voldemort and stood her ground.

Dean appeared suddenly behind Voldemort, his face covered in blood and dirt with grass in his hair. His spells joined Ron, Daphne and Stephanie's as he too struggled to get through Voldemort's masterful shields. The most they achieved was a flinch, a slight stumble. One of Dean's spells combined with Daphne's actually cut open Voldemort's cheek, sending blood flooding down onto his robes but it didn't slow him down.

Then Neville was there, Hannah Abbott by his side, their spells joining the four already striking Voldemort. They surrounded him, forcing him to stay where he was, refusing to give ground even as they struggled to avoid or block their own spells deflected or Voldemort's powerful ones.

One such spell shot through Ron's shield, tearing the spell down as though it were little more than tissue paper. Whatever spell it was slammed into Ron's chest dispersing across the spelled dragon hide of his jacket, until the only affect it had was to make him stumble back slightly.

Voldemort spun, spell leaping from his wand with ferocity and tearing through Hannah's shield as simply as his previous one had torn through Ron's. She wasn't wearing protective dragon hide, though. She staggered back, clutching at her stomach as tears filled her eyes. Voldemort was still moving, his next spell caught Neville in the face and he went down. Ron knew he would never get up; tears threatened to blind him but he blinked them back. Gritting his teeth he continue his onslaught, catching it only from the corner of his eye as Hannah finally fell, one last spell firing from her wand to land on the back of Voldemort's knee.

Stephanie was the next to fall. Voldemort's spell slammed into her with such force she went flying backward. Even over the sounds of the battle Ron heard her scream as she landed and the harsh words of agony that served as reassurance that followed.

'Mother fucker!'

She was alive but she wouldn't be walking for a while, she was out of this fight. That was all of the attention Ron could spare for his fallen friend because in the next instant something wrapped around Daphne's lower legs and she went down. Tumbling backward over the fallen body of a Death Eater. She made no sound when she hit the ground but Ron knew she was alive. He felt sure he would have known it if she was dead. He'd certainly felt something when she'd become trapped in that terrifying cycle of life and death.

Ron was on his own now, just a lanky Gryffindor sixth year standing tall against the strongest and most feared dark wizard of all time. Which was in no way a comforting thought. He dodged, ducked and spun to avoid what spells he could, shield as strong as he could make it. It had occurred to him early on that Voldemort was toying with him, there was nothing stopping the Dark Lord from simply hitting him with the killing curse and ending things once and for all.

He hadn't though; he'd chosen instead to toy with them all just as Ron and the others had been trying to distract him. Something gave way beneath his feet and Ron began to fall. He managed to catch himself, sharp pain screaming through his wrist as he did. Voldemort leaned over him; mouth curving in what Ron guessed was supposed to be smug satisfaction.

Ron shot him in the face with a powerful bludgeoning hex that sent the man reeling backward. Ron slumped to the ground as Voldemort whipped his wand up, this, he knew, would be the end for him. In the instant before Voldemort's mouth moved to form the words of the killing curse Ron considered closing his eyes.

A flash of flames appeared in front of him and for one second Ron thought Ally had finally finished with Voldemort's army. But the form in front of him, the one with a hand gripped tightly around Voldemort's neck, was not Ally. It was Harry.

And Ron allowed consciousness to slip away, darkness washing out Harry's words.

'Its over, Tom,' Harry said calmly. 'This ends now.'

Voldemort tried to snarl, tried to speak around the tight grip on his neck that was lifting him from the ground so his toes just brushed the grass. He started to raise his wand but Harry was so tired of the fight, of all of the pain and violence that this ignorant, power hungry old man had wrought over the entire magical and muggle community.

'No,' Harry said firmly and twisted his hand.

The sound of Voldemort's neck breaking went unheard beneath the other sounds of battle. The way his body crumpled now that his brain was no longer capable of sending proper signals was quiet an almost anticlimactic.

The satisfaction of the act was further reaching.

Ally appeared at his side, flames tempered now that her mate was back by her side. She was naked and her hair was smoking slightly but she didn't seem to care. Her hand slipped into Harry's and together they looked down at the broken form of the man who had destroyed Harry's life as a child and who had tried again and again since then.

Someone approached them, slipping a cloak around Ally's shoulder before coming to stand just as silently over the fallen Voldemort. It was McGonagall. Slowly and surely, quiet spread across the grounds and up toward the castle. Gradually the news spread that Voldemort was dead.

There wasn't a cheer; there wasn't excitement over the news. There was just a heavy, tired sigh as finally they were allowed to rest.

Tom Riddle, the man who had so despised his own nature, instead creating for himself a name and identity that marked him as the powerful descendent of Slytherin he wanted to be, was finally dead.

Peace.


	29. Chapter 29

**a/n: **At one point while writing this i actually got the sniffles, i'm willing to admit i was a tiny bit proud of what i'd made of some of these characters. There's just the epilogue to go after this and then what will probably be a long wait before the sequel. Please enjoy and feel free to leave me your thoughts.

**Chapter 29**

In the end they created a whole new cemetery on the outskirts of Hogsmeade. Ringed with a beautiful stone and iron fence, no expense was spared to make the large patch of land a place worthy of being the last resting place of those who died fighting Voldemort and his men. Each grave had a proper headstone, marking the last resting place of someone worthy of remembering.

At the centre they built a monument to all of the people who had died during the war. All of the people who had lost their lives not just at the Battle of Hogwarts but the St Mungo's Massacre, the fall of Azkaban and all of the hundreds of other scuffles and battles that were small in scale but not in pain of loss. There were over a thousand names on that wall, over a thousand people ranging in age from days to more than a century.

McGonagall hired a retired herbologist to maintain the grounds, seeing no reason that the memorial and the men, women and children resting beneath it could not be long cared for by Hogwarts. For many years to come, students on their way to Hogsmeade would leave flowers for their fellow students who had fallen during the war.

Neville Longbottom rested beside his parents, together again in the afterlife, as they had never had the opportunity to be in life. His grandmother visited every Tuesday, placing flowers on the grave of her son and daughter-in-law and a new exotic plant on her grandsons'. She stayed strong, never once breaking down, bursting with pride and never shying away from the truth of her loss. Her grandson had died at the hands of Voldemort. He had stood up beside his friends and fought with everything he had.

The Creevey brothers, like Neville and his parents, were buried side by side. They were young, yes, but not the youngest to be buried in that cemetery. Their headstones told the world proudly and without shame that these two boys, had fought bravely in battle, that they were responsible for saving lives and would forever be remembered for their sacrifice. Their parents would have another son, born just six months after they passed. Born with magic just as his brothers he would walk the halls of Hogwarts in the footsteps of his brothers, head held high knowing that when people pointed and whispered about him that they were talking about his brothers with awe.

He'd walk every day passed the wall where McGonagall proudly displayed the photographs Colin had taken.

Hermione had been the one to make the final decisions of where everyone rested. She'd grouped families together first, knowing that those who died together should have the ability to spend eternity resting together. The students who died were arranged according to which year they were in at Hogwarts, those who could rested beside friends those who couldn't were amongst friends they hadn't even known they had.

The other's who died fighting were arranged in alphabetical order. No one was given special treatment, no headstone told a sensationalised tale, they were honest and heartfelt, telling the truth about the person who rested there.

Percy Weasley rested in a quiet corner, his grave always covered with fresh flowers, the words on his stone were simple but honest. He was friend and family, brother and son and he had died like all of the others, fighting to protect those he loved from a greater darkness.

Jesse Jacks. Dean Thomas. Hannah Abbott. Pomona Sprout. Amelia Bones.

Remus Lupin. Moony had what was possible the most memorable headstone. When no one was around the twins and Sirius had worked a spell that revealed a hidden list of some of his best pranks to those who knew where to look. The stone proudly proclaimed for anyone walking by that the infamous Moony rested beneath it, the reason behind some of the Marauders most dangerous plans, the most loved and well respected werewolf around.

The things people left on his grave ranged from flowers to new pranks developed by the twins and joke products left by admirers and new generations of Hogwarts students who had heard the legends of the Marauders. Fred and George introduced a whole new line of joke products honouring the Marauders. Sirius snuck copies of the book they'd been working on as kids into the castle, leaving them in innocent places such as the library or on a bottom shelf in the transfiguration classroom.

Harry knew all of this; he took pride in knowing the quirks and patterns of the memorial cemetery. A lot of the names were unfamiliar to him but they all had died at the hands of Voldemort or under his instruction. He couldn't let himself forget the fact that Jesse's parents liked to have a picnic in Hogsmeade once a month when they'd come to lay fresh flowers on his grave.

He couldn't forget that Tonks brought each new werewolf from her shelter to see Remus' headstone where a werewolf was proudly remembered amongst the other witches and wizards who had fought bravely against Voldemort.

He couldn't forget that he had played a hand in Mrs Weasley losing one of her children or that Neville would never get to be the kind of man his grandmother had always known he could be. Harry couldn't forget the sacrifice made by so many people so that future generations of the wizarding world might have peace.

He couldn't forget that it could have been Ron or Hermione or Ginny lying there. He couldn't forget that Hannah may never have found her way here if it hadn't been for his ADADA. He couldn't let himself forget every sacrifice these people made, couldn't let himself regret not killing Voldemort sooner.

He couldn't let himself forget how it was that Albus Dumbledore came to rest beneath the memorial. Ron and Daphne had been the ones to bring his body home. Fawkes had solemnly drifted down onto Ron's shoulder once the battle was over and they'd started the clean up. He'd whisked Ron away before he'd had a chance to even shout, the only reason Daphne had gone along being that her hand had been gripping Ron's tightly.

They buried him with the other victims and heroes of the war against Voldemort. Harry knew he deserved that much at least. He may have lost his way toward the end, he may have lost sight of some of the more important aspects of his life and Harry's, but in the end he had died trying to help. He had played a key role in the beginning and it was only right that they honour that.

'It's time,' Ally murmured into his ear, breaking Harry out of his thoughts. He looked around, taking in all of the people seated in a huge half circle around the open gates of the cemetery. A few were looking at him expectantly.

Slowly he got to his feet and moved to stand in front of all of those people. Gathered before him were the friends and family of those who had fallen in battle and quite a few important people from the new Ministry. He briefly made eye contact with a reporter for the _Daily Prophet_ before he found Kingsley Shacklebot, the new Minister for Magic. He spotted Ron and Daphne in the crowd surrounded by their families. He saw Draco Malfoy sitting beside Tonks, one arm wrapped around her in the first show of familial affection Harry had ever seen from the Slytherin. Andromeda sat beside them, arms cradling tiny Teddy Lupin.

Harry spotted his godfather, arm draped across the back of his wife's chair, fingers playing idly with a loose curl of her hair. Even from a distance it was easy to see the swell of Ruby's stomach and the way Sirius' jaw clenched in sadness.

He saw Hermione sitting with Steven and Professor McGonagall; saw Hagrid's large form, snuffling into a handkerchief. He looked around at the clear cool February morning and he started to speak.

'Today marks a year since the death of Tom Riddle, the man we knew as Lord Voldemort,' he paused waiting for the inevitable flinches that still came at the sound of the Dark Lord's name. 'We remember this day because it was the end of one of the darkest periods in magical history. We shouldn't. This is not a day to remember the fear and violence it is instead the day we should be remembering those we loved. The people we loved who sacrificed so much.

'Today we should remember Neville Longbottom who started his time at Hogwarts as the forgetful boy who secured me my place on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. We should remember the man he became and the things he achieved.

'We should remember Madam Amelia Bones…'

When he had first been approached by the committee organising this anniversary event Harry had flat out refused to speak. Not only did the idea of speaking so publicly make him uncomfortable but also he was still struggling to come to terms with the fact that the fight was over and things were going back to normal. Having that much time to actually think had made him very aware of the things he had done. He was startlingly aware of the people he had killed and of the students he had led to their death.

It would be a while before he fully came to terms with that. It would be a long time before he could get passed the harsh memories and just be okay. Molly helped, she was always so delighted to see her father, to just spend any moment with him playing or just lying about. He didn't stay at Hogwarts anymore, choosing to go home every night for dinner with his family and to stay in his own bed.

He needed that connection to remind him why he had done the things he had. He needed Ally to remind him when he woke screaming from a nightmare that he had not led those kids to their death but had taught them valuable skills that had given them the choice to fight. He needed to be around her so that he could remember why they had made that choice for themselves.

It had been Ally who forced him to accept the request that he speak. Like all the other times she'd decided it would be good for him and told him in no uncertain terms that he would do it. He'd learned a long time ago not to argue with her, she got very creative when things didn't go her way. And though he'd never tell her (although he knew she already knew) she had been right, speaking about that day and about all of the good people they had lost helped to ease the pain of it.

'That was very nice, Harry,' Hermione told him later when the formal parts were over and people were starting to move through the cemetery to pay visits to their loved ones. Her eyes were misty and her voice was thick with emotion.

Ally squeezed his arm where she was pressed to his side. He tried not to notice the way Molly had started to place slobbery kisses on his neck. She hadn't quite got the hang of dry kisses yet. 'I'm so proud of you,' Ally whispered into his ear.

He smiled at her but it was a heavy smile, all of the emotions raging around the cemetery were enough to bring anyone into a sombre mood. There were smiles as well, though. He'd gotten a few laughs with his stories about the people buried there. He'd spent quite a lot of time gathering the stories together, speaking with friends and relatives of those he hadn't known personally. It had been worth it, even if it had been heartbreaking.

'We don't blame you, dear,' Jesse's grandmother had told him with a sad smile and the offer of a cookie. The cookie had let him cover his watery smile.

Ruby appeared beside them, reaching to tickle Molly's cheek. She looked tired but was more smiles than sad tears. She looked around her, eyes searching the crowd looking for what, Harry didn't know.

'It was nice what you did for their families, Harry,' she told him quietly. 'Making this day for them and not about Voldemort was a good idea. They needed it.'

'I think I needed it as well,' he admitted. 'All these people thinking I'm some powerful legend because I killed Voldemort they keep forgetting that I'm still just a kid.'

'You haven't been a kid for a long time,' Sirius said sadly, coming up behind Ruby. 'I'm sorry for the part I played in that.'

One drunken night Sirius had tried to apologise for getting locked away in Azkaban when he should have been raising Harry, shielding him from the worst of the Dursley's and Dumbledore's decisions. It hadn't been the first time Sirius had tried to apologise, just the drunkest, but Harry, like all the other times, had simply brushed him off.

Ron and Daphne drifted over, hands clasped tightly together. Daphne bore the scars of war much more visibly than most. The crisp white of the bandage on her chest still peaked from the neck of her coat. Malfoy had arranged for the best healers at his new hospital to have a look at her and they were finally starting to make some headway. It would be years before the wound properly healed but they had hope that it would.

She wore the scar without complaint, as though it were simply a part of her. Harry had never heard Ron complain about it, if anything he saw it as just another reason to love her. Slowly the other members of the ADADA drifted over, Emmy with her hands shoved deep in her pockets to keep warm with Fred and George talking quietly behind her about some new product or something they were thinking of selling. Stephanie, hair buried beneath a knitted hat wandered over with Luna and Abby.

Others started to break away, people who had come to pay their respects were leaving as the air grew cold and the sky started to darken. Malfoy stomped over, huddled down into his jacket to keep warm; his own hat was slipping down over Astoria's head. She looked delightfully warm while he looked miserable. It made Harry smile.

'We done here?' he grumbled, stomping his feet in place. 'Its bloody freezing.'

Harry nodded, he was happily using a little magic to keep himself warm and he could feel flames creeping up Molly's back. It was a trick she'd mastered pretty quickly and it had led even faster to her ability to flame long distance. It was not a fun experience.

'Good,' Malfoy, mumbled. 'See you tomorrow.'

He turned, withdrawing a hand from one of his pockets long enough to tuck it around one of Astoria's arms before he hastily stuffed it back in. The pair started the cold walk back up to the castle, Ron and Daphne not far behind. Abby placed a quick kiss on Harry's cheek before hurrying to catch up.

Soon it was just Harry and Ally standing with Sirius and Ruby. His godfather looked cold but he was lingering for Harry's benefit. Ruby didn't seem to be bothered by the cold but she had been frequently complaining about always being hot now that she was pregnant so Harry assumed she just hadn't noticed yet.

'See you around, kid.' Sirius clapped a hand on Harry's back, took his wife's hand and with a last smile, the two apparated home.

Harry took one last look around at the cemetery; at the reminder of what they had been through and that they were slowly rebuilding a world destroyed by fear, violence and dark magic.

'Let's go home.'


	30. Epilogue

**a/n: **Well here we are, the final chapter of TotP. It has been one hell of a ride and i can't even begin to form words strong enough to convey just how much your support and reviews have meant to me. This chapter ends one period in Harry's life and hints at the next. It requires a teeny bit of familiarity with my side series Dinner with the Dursley's but nothing terribly noticeable. There will be a sequel titled Songs of the Phoenix but don't expect to see it before October. Thanks again!

**Epilogue**

_The Weasley Family_

The invitation had arrived with all the rest of the morning's mail and if it hadn't been in a brilliant red envelope that had Ron snatching at it in horror – it did look sort of like a howler – it probably would have gone unnoticed until Daphne bothered to go through the pile over dinner. They'd discovered early on that anything sent by the twins was best left until later and anything else that came through the post was junk or one of the million magazines Daphne subscribed to.

It wasn't a howler. Ron tossed his toast carelessly down on his plate and flipped the envelope over to see if there was a return address on the back. He hadn't recognised the handwriting on the front and a quick sweep with his wand proved it was harmless.

He thought about reconsidering that assessment when he opened it and pulled the invitation out.

'Bloody hell,' he exclaimed with astonishment.

'Bloody hell!' a voice parroted from behind him and Ron whipped around with a yelp.

'Oi,' he reproached, 'don't say that! Never say that, especially not in front of your mother.'

He pushed his chair back from the table and lunged. His four-year old son – so soon to be five – darted out of reach at the last moment, leaving Ron snatching at nothing but air and the wisp of bright orange pyjamas. Giggling madly, the surprisingly quick red head ran back down the hall and toward the stairs. With a laugh of his own, Ron took off after him, one hand still clutching the invitation as though he couldn't bear to part with something so surprising.

He caught the boy as he tried to slip around the stairs and into the lounge. Scooping him into the air, he swung him around, placing noisy wet raspberries against his son's cheek.

'Dad!' Will protested with a squeal. 'Put me down!'

'Never!' Ron declared, tossing the boy over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and starting up the stairs in search of his wife.

Daphne was still in bed, propped up against the pillows, she was reading a book to their three-year old daughter who had her head pressed against Daphne's swollen belly like if she was really quiet she could here her new baby brother or sister moving around.

Ron knew from experience she was much more likely to get an elbow to the side of the head but he doubted Rose would mind, she'd probably be delighted. She was delighted by everything at the moment, Daphne was always telling him he indulged her just a little too much but he pretended not to hear her.

'You'll never guess what just arrived in the post,' Ron told her, dropping Will casually onto the bed with enough force to bounce but not so much that he bounced right off the mattress. Rose liked the idea so much she got to her feet and started jumping.

'You checked the post?' Daphne replied with such surprise Ron probably should have been offended.

'I do occasionally, you know.' At the look she gave him he conceded that maybe the only time he checked the mail was on his birthday but that was entirely beside the point. 'Its an invitation,' he told her, holding it out to her through the jumping bodies of their kids. 'To Harry's wedding.'

'You're kidding?' She took the card he handed to her, struggling a little to push her heavy body further up the pillows. 'Never thought that would happen.'

'I know, Steph is going to be so smug, she had it pegged for December.'

'This says April,' Daphne read, confused.

'Yeah,' Ron agreed, 'But no one else had it down for at least another two years.'

Daphne laughed, placing the invitation in the book she'd been reading to Rose to mark her place and dropped it onto the nightstand.

'Come on, you two,' Ron snatched a kid with each arm and drew them to his sides. 'Breakfast, or I'm going to be late for work.'

'Are you going to catch a bad wizard today, daddy?' Rose questioned, arms wrapped around his neck.

'Merlin, I hope so,' he muttered, 'I'm sick of paperwork.'

_Miss Hermione Granger_

Hermione was a morning person, Peter, she was coming to discover, was most definitely not. He stumbled into her small kitchen, hair all tangled and looking in desperate need of a shave. His eyes weren't even properly open and he stumbled toward the bench top hand stretching out as though it could find the coffee pot of its own accord. She was beginning to think it could.

'Morning,' she greeted cheerfully, not even trying to hide her amusement.

He grunted in response and she took that to mean he was returning her greeting and unamused by her cheerfulness. He didn't have any pants on and his shirt was buttoned wrong, it didn't make it any easier for her not to laugh. She loved seeing him like this, loved the opportunity to watch him come awake in the morning and squint at her through bleary eyes as though he wanted to talk to her but really, it was simply too early and couldn't she have waited until noon?

She loved that she knew how many sips of coffee he needed in the morning before he could open his eyes and properly see her. She loved that he was still a bit awkward around her flat, that he'd sometimes forget where the mugs were or go to grab a dishtowel that wasn't there.

She loved that when she'd finally told him what it was that she really did, he'd asked her a million and one questions about her job and how it was that he could help her improve relations between muggles and the wizarding world. He'd offered to let her use his classroom as a test to see if they could integrate the young kids before they went off to Hogwarts (he'd gotten the name wrong and it had made her laugh).

She loved that he could take an owl swooping in the open window at six thirty in stride. Although, she did often wonder if he wasn't simply half asleep and didn't notice the feathery form dropping letters in the middle of the table right in front of him. She loved him and she thought that perhaps she should start actually telling him that. And that perhaps it was time she introduced him to her friends and not just her muggle family.

'My friend Harry is finally getting married,' she told him, waving the newly arrived invitation around. 'Want to be my plus one?'

The smile he gave her lit up the whole room and made her insides flutter. It would take her hours to lose the silly smile and it would creep back when she let her thoughts drift throughout the day. It would have made it even harder for her to stop smiling if she'd known that in his classroom at the primary school in her tiny village, Mr Winton was being teased mercilessly by all of the girls in his grade six class for smiling goofily.

_The Weasley Family (again)_

Once upon a time, the sound of something exploding would have had Emmy tearing out of bed, wand in hand and eyes searching for the source of attack. These days she pulled the pillow over her head and snuggled deeper into the covers. If she pretended she didn't hear it then she wouldn't have to go and investigate and her boys could clean up whatever they'd done. It was a lot easier to pretend she didn't know they were making a mess than have to go upstairs to the attic and yell about it.

She heard hurried footsteps scurrying down the stairs and a moment later the bedroom door opened. Emmy stilled, the footsteps had been too light to be her husband and if Percy was coming to interrupt her sleep then there was a good chance it was because whatever had exploded had caused some actual physical harm to Fred.

With a sigh, she tossed the pillow aside and threw back the covers. Her son had that look on his face that said whatever had happened had been awesome – pity that Dad had gotten hurt. Both of his eyebrows were missing and he was carrying with him a smell that Emmy didn't even want to name.

She narrowed her eyes at him and waited for him to stop squirming with excitement. 'Tell me,' she began, 'do I have time for breakfast?'

'Probably not,' he advised, sounding much older than his seven years and giving Emmy a hint of what she had to look forward to when he grew up.

As she had done back at Hogwarts during the war, Emmy always kept a pair of boots and a jacket beside her bed and her wand within reach. These days it was usually because they needed a quick trip to the Malfoy Institute and not a fight with Death Eaters.

'What happened this time?' she asked, buttoning her jacket and guiding him out the bedroom door.

'We got a bit surprised and dad dropped a bit more rat tail in than he was supposed to.'

They took the stairs two at a time, Percy almost running to keep up with her longer strides. 'A surprise?' she repeated dubiously. 'What kind of a surprise?'

'An invitation to Uncle Harry and Aunt Ally's wedding.'

'Oh.' Emmy supposed she could forgive Fred this time, that was a very surprising thing to happen.

_The Black Family_

Any meal in the Black household was an elaborate and noisy affair. More than one had involved flying food and more often than not it involved a quick wash afterward. Sirius, to his utter consternation, had been gifted with girls. This was a frightening concept for many reasons, least of which was the fact that he still very clearly remembered what boys were like as teenagers.

This had led to many threats of never letting the girls attend Hogwarts and the occasional suggestion they be locked in a tower.

Ruby found the whole thing hilarious. Sirius, she knew, had nothing to worry about from their girls. He should probably, in fact, warn any boys that could potentially stray into their attentions. Between the two of them, they'd managed to instil in their two daughters a very healthy sense of adventure, humour and the ability to be forthright, sarcastic and – worryingly – a good healthy desire to take care of themselves. This had been known to leave bruises on Teddy if he wasn't careful. Or just happened to be the only one around to annoy.

This particular morning they were on holiday, well they were supposed to be leaving for a holiday but there'd been arguments, pranks and a case of invisibility that had pushed their timetable back a smidge and so tempers were a bit short as they ate breakfast. Apparently, even at the age of seven and eight, girls could be snarky and, as Sirius was beginning to learn, difficult to control when they really didn't want to be moved on a subject.

The post owl was a welcome distraction from the frosty barbs he knew his daughters were exchanging. The invitation in the scarlet envelope put them all in a much more cheerful mood. Sirius even consented to letting the two bring along their cat Puddles as long as they promised not to turn him invisible again.

_A Weasley or two_

Ginny was sitting at their small kitchen table when George stumbled through the door of the little flat they shared above the joke shop. She sipped calmly from her mug of tea and hid her smirk behind a copy of the morning's _Daily Prophet_. It wasn't the first time she'd been witness to George doing the walk of shame and she seriously doubted it would be the last.

She watched without comment as he tried to sneak down the hall as quietly as possibly but failed when he lost his hold on one of his boots and it dropped to the floor with a heavy thud. Ginny laughed aloud when he winced at the sound and George jumped, spinning around to face her.

'I gave Steph your bed when you didn't come home,' she informed him lightly.

George nodded, eyes drooping and a yawn forcing his mouth open when he tried to reply to his sister. She waved him on, not really caring to hear whatever excuse he was going to feed her. She was definitely old enough to know what he had spent the night doing that had him so tired.

Heedless of the fact that his bed was currently occupied, George continued on his path down the hall and slipped into his darkened room. Ginny listened through the early morning quiet as her brother moved about his room. She could picture him hopping about as he tried to untangle his legs from his jeans and bumping into something as he tried to take his t-shirt off. She gave it a moment where she imagined he was plopping down face first on his bed.

She counted to three under her breath but only made it to two before she heard her brother grunt in pain. Experience told her he'd just received an elbow to his ribs. She waited a few more minutes to see if he was going to come slinking back out again and try his luck with her bed instead but there was no more movement. Apparently he'd caught Stephanie on a good day and she'd decided not to kick him out of bed.

Ginny placed her mug back on the table and picked up the invitation she'd been reading earlier. Harry was finally getting married.

'Its about damn time,' she murmured, carefully placing the invitation back onto the table where she knew George would see it when he finally crawled out of bed in a few hours to tend to his shop.

She supposed she had better find a date. Maybe she'd finally take Abby up on that offer to set her up with her brother-in-law. Maybe.

_The Malfoy Household_

With his chin resting on his fist, Draco stared into the eyes of his young daughter. Across the breakfast table she copied his pose, eyes narrowing as she determined to beat him. A minute went by. Draco felt his eye begin to twitch. Across the table his daughter tried desperately to keep a straight face. The corners of her mouth were twitching. Draco felt his own start to move in response. His eyes began to water and he narrowed them to try and hold out just that bit longer.

She poked her tongue out at him. He broke first, a laugh escaping him before he could swallow it back.

'I win!' she crowed delightedly. 'Daddy, you kind of suck.'

'Yes, thank you for that reminder, Artemis, it is exactly what I like to be told over breakfast.'

'Teddy says I should tell it like it is,' she informed him sagely.

'Teddy doesn't know everything.'

'Really?' Artemis clarified. 'He thinks he does.'

'Teddy thinks it's a smart idea to tease Cassiopeia and Lyra,' Draco reminded her.

She nodded thoughtfully, picking up the spoon she'd abandoned earlier in her (successful) attempt to beat her father at a staring contest. She chewed on a mouthful of porridge, nose crinkled just as her mother's did when she was thinking deeply about something.

'Okay,' she agreed finally, 'Next time I'll ask you before I believe Teddy.'

'Good, now do you want to go and tell your mother?'

'Not really,' she told him, looking up with a grin. 'I just wanted to see if I could beat you.'

Draco resisted the urge to bang his head against the table and instead scooped up the invitation that had arrived in the post. Looked like he was going to be the one to tell Astoria after all. He might also have to have a word to her about how their five year old was going on thirteen. He hadn't had nearly enough time to prepare for that.

_The Potter Family_

All four members of the Potter family were still asleep. It was one of those lazy days where they didn't need to be anyway early and they'd managed to wear the kids out enough that they might even get a proper sleep in.

All four members of the Potter family were dreaming. It was dark, the stars in the sky obscured by thick clouds that threatened to burst and pour heavy rain down on them. Lightening streaked across the sky and thunder rumbled an instant later. They didn't recognise where they were but the storm was close and they knew they would need to leave and find shelter.

It wasn't safe here. Not anymore, there was a darkness coming, something that swept across the land, filling the horizon with nothing more tangible than a sense of foreboding. The darkness sucked at them, but couldn't seem to touch them. Flames licked around them, sending long tendrils of blonde hair twisting like live snakes. Black hair stood in disarray more pronounced than ever before.

They formed a beacon of life and safety that the approaching darkness was swooping quickly toward. They turned and ran, feet sluggish as they thumped the muddy ground. They were heavy as they tried to pull them out. They looked back over their shoulders. The darkness was right behind them now. A figure began to emerge from the darkness, a hand outstretched, reaching to grasp their shoulders held just out of reach.

They tripped, foot failing to lift free of the mud. The hand finally landed on their shoulder. They whipped around, hands reaching for a wand that wasn't there.

A face emerged from the darkness, twin balls of flame hanging where there should have been eyes.

'He's coming.'

Harry and Ally shot up in bed, breathing heavy, brows covered in sweat. They had a heartbeat to slow their breathing before the girls awoke with twin screams. Harry and Ally tore out of bed, wrenching open the door only to meet their girls in the hallway. James was white as a ghost, her hands shaking while Alex was crying, her whole body shaking with her sobs.

Harry could do nothing more than sweep up James as Ally reached soothing hands out to Alex. With James cradled in his arms, he locked eyes with Ally over the top of their daughters' heads.

Something was coming. Something much worse than anything they'd faced before.


End file.
